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Fatal error reading file snpEff.config with SnpEff

Hi, I have recently been introduced to bioinformatics, Variant Calling and the necessary analysis for it. I have obtained several VCF files from FreeBayes and I wanted to run them through snpEff too. This way I could annotate de variants between two genomes of the genus Shewanella. Sadly I have not been able to do this since I keep getting the same error over and over. Here is the code and the running process with the error included:

(base) binso@LAPTOP-P73O7IPS:~/Alignment/VariantCalling$ java -jar ../../miniconda3/pkgs/snpeff-4.3.1t 3/share/snpeff-4.3.1t-3/snpEff.jar Shewanella_putrefaciens_cn_32 ../../miniconda3/pkgs/snpeff-4.3.1t-3/share/snpeff-4.3.1t-3/snpEff.config -v -s VC_SPt_ST2-3D_6.vcf>VC_snpEff.vcf                                                      

00:00:00        SnpEff version SnpEff 4.3t (build 2017-11-24 10:18), by Pablo Cingolani 
00:00:00        Command: 'ann' 
00:00:00        Reading configuration file 'snpEff.config'. Genome: 'Shewanella_putrefaciens_cn_32'  
00:00:00        Reading config file: /home/binso/Alignment/VariantCalling/snpEff.config
00:00:00        Reading config file: /home/binso/miniconda3/pkgs/snpeff-4.3.1t-3/share/snpeff-4.3.1t-3/snpEff.config
00:00:00        done                                                                                                                                                   
00:00:00        Reading database for genome version 'Shewanella_putrefaciens_cn_32' from file'/home/binso/miniconda3/pkgs/snpeff4.3.1t3/share/snpeff4.3.1t3/./data/
        Shewanella_putrefaciens_cn_32/snpEffectPredictor.bin' (this might take a while)                                                                                         00:00:01        done                                                                                                                                                   
00:00:01        Loading Motifs and PWMs                                                                                                                                 00:00:01        Building interval forest                                                                                                                                00:00:02        done.
00:00:02        Genome stats :                                                                                                                                         
        #-----------------------------------------------                                                                                                                      
        # Genome name : 'Shewanella_putrefaciens_cn_32'                                                                                                   
        # Genome version : 'Shewanella_putrefaciens_cn_32'                                                                                                         
        # Genome ID: 'Shewanella_putrefaciens_cn_32[0]'                                                                                                        
        # Has protein coding info: true                                                                                                                                     
        # Has Tr. Support Level info : true                                                                                                                                    
        # Genes : 4331                                                                                                                                     
        # Protein coding gene: 4171                                                                                                                           
        #-----------------------------------------------                                                                                                                        
        # Transcripts: 4331                                                                                                                                     
        # Avg. transcripts per gene: 1.00                                                                                                                                    
        # TSL transcripts: 0                                                                                                                                        
        #-----------------------------------------------                                                                                                                        
        # Checked transcripts:                                                                                                                                          
        # AA sequences :   3972 ( 95.23% )                                                                                                                       
        # DNA sequences :      0 ( 0.00% )                                                                                                                         
        #-----------------------------------------------                                                                                                                        
        # Protein coding transcripts : 4171                                                                                                                             
        #Length errors :    182 ( 4.36% )                                                                                                                         
        #STOP codons in CDS errors :     29 ( 0.70% )                                                                                                                         
        #START codon errors :    535 ( 12.83% )                                                                                                                        
        #STOP codon warnings :     17 ( 0.41% )                                                                                                                        
        #UTR sequences :      0 ( 0.00% )                                                                                                                         
        #Total Errors :    540 ( 12.95% )                                                                                                                        
        # WARNING: No protein coding transcript has UTR                                                                                                     
        #-----------------------------------------------                                                                                                                     
        # Cds : 3972                                                                                                                             
        #Exons: 4331                                                                                                                              
        # Exons with sequence : 4331                                                                                                                                     
        # Exons without sequence     : 0                                                                                                                                        
        # Avg. exons per transcript  : 1.00                                                                                                                                    
        #-----------------------------------------------                                                                                                                      
        # Number of chromosomes      : 1                                                                                                                                        
        # Chromosomes                : Format 'chromo_name size codon_table'                                                                                                    
        # 'Chromosome'    4659220 Standard                                                                                                                       
        #-----------------------------------------------

00:00:02        Predicting variants       
    VcfFileIterator.parseVcfLine(132):  Fatal error readingfile'../../miniconda3/pkgs/snpeff4.3.1t3/share/snpeff4.3.1t3/snpEff.config' (line: 17): 
    data.dir = ./data/                                                                                                                                                      java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.RuntimeException: Impropper VCF entry: Not enough fields (missing tab separators?).
    data.dir = ./data/                                                                                                                                                              
    at org.snpeff.fileIterator.VcfFileIterator.parseVcfLine(VcfFileIterator.java:133)                                                                                       
    at org.snpeff.fileIterator.VcfFileIterator.readNext(VcfFileIterator.java:184)                                                                                           
    at org.snpeff.fileIterator.VcfFileIterator.readNext(VcfFileIterator.java:57)                                                                                            
    at org.snpeff.fileIterator.FileIterator.hasNext(FileIterator.java:123)                                                                                                  
    at org.snpeff.snpEffect.commandLine.SnpEffCmdEff.annotateVcf(SnpEffCmdEff.java:467)                                                                                     
    at org.snpeff.snpEffect.commandLine.SnpEffCmdEff.annotate(SnpEffCmdEff.java:142)                                                                                        
    at org.snpeff.snpEffect.commandLine.SnpEffCmdEff.run(SnpEffCmdEff.java:1029)                                                                                            
    at org.snpeff.snpEffect.commandLine.SnpEffCmdEff.run(SnpEffCmdEff.java:984)                                                                                             
    at org.snpeff.SnpEff.run(SnpEff.java:1183)                                                                                                                              
    at org.snpeff.SnpEff.main(SnpEff.java:162)   

Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Impropper VCF entry: Not enough fields (missing tab separators?).
data.dir = ./data/                                                                                                                                                               
at org.snpeff.vcf.VcfEntry.parse(VcfEntry.java:1007)                                                                                                                    
at org.snpeff.vcf.VcfEntry.<init>(VcfEntry.java:219)                                                                                                                    
at org.snpeff.fileIterator.VcfFileIterator.parseVcfLine(VcfFileIterator.java:130)
... 9 more                                                                                                                                                     
00:00:02       Logging                                                                                                                                                                    
00:00:03        Checking for updates...
00:00:05        Done.

I'm not sure if this is due to the snpEff.config file or my VCF file. Any possible tip or recommendation would be highly appreciated.

snpeff fatal error variant calling

1 answer

Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Impropper VCF entry: Not enough fields (missing tab separators?).

it's a problem with your vcf file. Check it's a proper vcf file (eg. try to read it with bcftools view )

Thank you for replying, I have tried that with the following command and it seems to work alright:

(base) binso@LAPTOP-P73O7IPS:~/Alignment/VariantCalling$ bcftools view --header-only VC_SPt_ST2-3D_2.vcf

##fileformat=VCFv4.2                                                                     
##FILTER=<ID=PASS,Description="All filters passed">                                                                 
##fileDate=20200414                                                                                                                          
##source=freeBayes v1.3.2-dirty                                                                                              
##reference=12SPt.fasta

It keeps going for a while so I just pasted some of the first lines

It keeps going for a while so I just pasted some of the first lines

can you please try _without_ --header-only ...

(base) binso@LAPTOP-P73O7IPS:~/Alignment/VariantCalling$ bcftools view VC_SPt_ST2-3D_2.vcf

It prints the whole input file like this:

Shewanella_putrefaciens_CN_32   3954896 .       A       G       2518.72 .       AB=0;ABP=0;AC=1;AF=1;AN=1;AO=84;CIGAR=1X;DP=84;DPB=84;DPRA=0;EPP=4.66476;EPPR=0;GTI=0;LEN=1;MEANALT=1;MQM=41.2738;MQMR=0;NS=1;NUMALT=1;ODDS=579.957;PAIRED=0.357143;PAIREDR=0;PAO=0;PQA=0;PQR=0;PRO=0;QA=2996;QR=0;RO=0;RPL=53;RPP=15.5221;RPPR=0;RPR=31;RUN=1;SAF=37;SAP=5.59539;SAR=47;SRF=0;SRP=0;SRR=0;TYPE=snp     GT:DP:AD:RO:QR:AO:QA:GL 1:84:0,84:0:0:84:2996:-256.727,0                                                     
Shewanella_putrefaciens_CN_32   3955123 .       C       T       1794.75 .       AB=0;ABP=0;AC=1;AF=1;AN=1;AO=61;CIGAR=1X;DP=61;DPB=61;DPRA=0;EPP=7.31765;EPPR=0;GTI=0;LEN=1;MEANALT=1;MQM=41.3607;MQMR=0;NS=1;NUMALT=1;ODDS=413.255;PAIRED=0.442623;PAIREDR=0;PAO=0;PQA=0;PQR=0;PRO=0;QA=2132;QR=0;RO=0;RPL=29;RPP=3.33068;RPPR=0;RPR=32;RUN=1;SAF=32;SAP=3.33068;SAR=29;SRF=0;SRP=0;SRR=0;TYPE=snp     GT:DP:AD:RO:QR:AO:QA:GL 1:61:0,61:0:0:61:2132:-182.941,0                                                     
Shewanella_putrefaciens_CN_32   3955181 .       G       T       2069.34 .       AB=0;ABP=0;AC=1;AF=1;AN=1;AO=74;CIGAR=1X;DP=75;DPB=75;DPRA=0;EPP=12.5178;EPPR=5.18177;GTI=0;LEN=1;MEANALT=1;MQM=41.4459;MQMR=42;NS=1;NUMALT=1;ODDS=476.482;PAIRED=0.445946;PAIREDR=0;PAO=0;PQA=0;PQR=0;PRO=0;QA=2487;QR=25;RO=1;RPL=28;RPP=12.5178;RPPR=5.18177;RPR=46;RUN=1;SAF=30;SAP=8.76177;SAR=44;SRF=1;SRP=5.18177;SRR=0;TYPE=snp GT:DP:AD:RO:QR:AO:QA:GL 1:75:1,74:1:25:74:2487:-211.598,0

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