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GATK - GenomeLocParser - The available sequence dictionary does not contain a sequence length for contig

Hello, I am having some issues using GATK GenomicsDB Import, specifically when a command GenomeLocParser raises the following warning:

The available sequence dictionary does not contain a sequence length for contig (2). Skipping validation of the genome loc end coordinate (380000).

This happens for any contig I try, not just 2.

In other posts people have mentioned that this was a problem of incorrect indexing of the fasta files. I have indexed the files myself, using the following commands, as suggested in GATK:

wget ftp://ftp-trace.ncbi.nih.gov/1000genomes/ftp/technical/reference/human_g1k_v37.fasta.gz 
bgzip -d human_g1k_v37.fasta.gz 
samtools faidx /home/files/human_g1k_v37.fasta 
gatk CreateSequenceDictionary -R human_g1k_v37.fasta

A head of the .dict file shows:

@HD VN:1.6
@SQ SN:1    LN:249250621    M5:1b22b98cdeb4a9304cb5d48026a85128 UR:file:/home/files/human_g1k_v37.fasta
@SQ SN:2    LN:243199373    M5:a0d9851da00400dec1098a9255ac712e UR:file:/home/files/human_g1k_v37.fasta
@SQ SN:3    LN:198022430    M5:fdfd811849cc2fadebc929bb925902e5 UR:file:/home/files/human_g1k_v37.fasta
@SQ SN:4    LN:191154276    M5:23dccd106897542ad87d2765d28a19a1 UR:file:/home/files/human_g1k_v37.fasta
@SQ SN:5    LN:180915260    M5:0740173db9ffd264d728f32784845cd7 UR:file:/home/files/human_g1k_v37.fasta
@SQ SN:6    LN:171115067    M5:1d3a93a248d92a729ee764823acbbc6b UR:file:/home/files/human_g1k_v37.fasta
@SQ SN:7    LN:159138663    M5:618366e953d6aaad97dbe4777c29375e UR:file:/home/files/human_g1k_v37.fasta
@SQ SN:8    LN:146364022    M5:96f514a9929e410c6651697bded59aec UR:file:/home/files/human_g1k_v37.fasta
@SQ SN:9    LN:141213431    M5:3e273117f15e0a400f01055d9f393768 UR:file:/home/files/human_g1k_v37.fasta

So the .dict files have their length, but somehow GenomeLocParser does not see that.

This is the command I am using:

gatk GenomicsDBImport -V /home/files/patient.vcf.gz  --genomicsdb-workspace-path /home/files/my_database --intervals 2:200-380000 --reference /home/files/human_g1k_v37.fasta  --sequence-dictionary  /home/files/human_g1k_v37.dict --java-options '-DGATK_STACKTRACE_ON_USER_EXCEPTION=true'

and this is the complete log where the warning and error from GenomeLocParser:

gatk GenomicsDBImport -V /home/files/patient.vcf.gz  --genomicsdb-workspace-path /home/files/my_database --intervals 2:200-380000 --reference /home/files/human_g1k_v37.fasta  --sequence-dictionary  /home/files/human_g1k_v37.dict --java-options '-DGATK_STACKTRACE_ON_USER_EXCEPTION=true'  
Using GATK jar /gatk/gatk-package-4.2.6.1-local.jar
Running:
    java -Dsamjdk.use_async_io_read_samtools=false -Dsamjdk.use_async_io_write_samtools=true -Dsamjdk.use_async_io_write_tribble=false -Dsamjdk.compression_level=2 -DGATK_STACKTRACE_ON_USER_EXCEPTION=true -jar /gatk/gatk-package-4.2.6.1-local.jar GenomicsDBImport -V /home/files/patient.vcf.gz --genomicsdb-workspace-path /home/files/my_database --intervals 2:200-380000 --reference /home/files/human_g1k_v37.fasta --sequence-dictionary /home/files/human_g1k_v37.dict
18:26:10.167 INFO  NativeLibraryLoader - Loading libgkl_compression.so from jar:file:/gatk/gatk-package-4.2.6.1-local.jar!/com/intel/gkl/native/libgkl_compression.so
18:26:10.277 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - ------------------------------------------------------------
18:26:10.277 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - The Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK) v4.2.6.1
18:26:10.277 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - For support and documentation go to https://software.broadinstitute.org/gatk/
18:26:10.278 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Executing as root@bfe698f49095 on Linux v5.4.0-109-generic amd64
18:26:10.278 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Java runtime: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM v1.8.0_242-8u242-b08-0ubuntu3~18.04-b08
18:26:10.278 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Start Date/Time: July 19, 2022 6:26:10 PM GMT
18:26:10.278 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - ------------------------------------------------------------
18:26:10.278 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - ------------------------------------------------------------
18:26:10.278 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - HTSJDK Version: 2.24.1
18:26:10.278 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Picard Version: 2.27.1
18:26:10.278 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Built for Spark Version: 2.4.5
18:26:10.279 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - HTSJDK Defaults.COMPRESSION_LEVEL : 2
18:26:10.279 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - HTSJDK Defaults.USE_ASYNC_IO_READ_FOR_SAMTOOLS : false
18:26:10.279 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - HTSJDK Defaults.USE_ASYNC_IO_WRITE_FOR_SAMTOOLS : true
18:26:10.279 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - HTSJDK Defaults.USE_ASYNC_IO_WRITE_FOR_TRIBBLE : false
18:26:10.279 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Deflater: IntelDeflater
18:26:10.279 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Inflater: IntelInflater
18:26:10.279 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - GCS max retries/reopens: 20
18:26:10.279 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Requester pays: disabled
18:26:10.279 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Initializing engine
18:26:10.652 WARN  GenomeLocParser - The available sequence dictionary does not contain a sequence length for contig (2). Skipping validation of the genome loc end coordinate (380000).
18:26:10.653 INFO  IntervalArgumentCollection - Processing 379801 bp from intervals
18:26:10.686 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Done initializing engine
18:26:10.978 INFO  GenomicsDBLibLoader - GenomicsDB native library version : 1.4.3-6069e4a
18:26:10.979 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Vid Map JSON file will be written to /home/files/my_database/vidmap.json
18:26:10.979 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Callset Map JSON file will be written to /home/files/my_database/callset.json
18:26:10.979 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Complete VCF Header will be written to /home/files/my_database/vcfheader.vcf
18:26:10.979 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Importing to workspace - /home/files/my_database
18:26:11.159 INFO  GenomicsDBImport - Importing batch 1 with 1 samples
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'GenomicsDBConfigException'
  what():  GenomicsDBConfigException : Position 200 queried for contig 2 which is of length 0; queried position is past end of contig

I appreciate any ideas or suggestions of where my problem might be.

genomicsdb gatk createsequencedictionary
• 1,734 views • link
written by aheritas • aheritas

1 answer

what is the output of

bcftools view --header-only /home/files/patient.vcf.gz  | grep "##contig" | grep -w 2
• 0 views • link
written by Pierre Lindenbaum Pierre Lindenbaum

Hi Pierre, thank you very much for your suggestion. This is the output using that command:

(bcfenv) root@fb9f52c2a474:/home/files# bcftools view --header-only /home/files/patient.vcf.gz  | grep "##contig" | grep -w 2
##contig=<ID=2>

So, from what I understand, my dictionary and my vcf are named the same, right?

• 0 views • link
written by aheritas • aheritas

so , it's not a problem with your reference but with your input vcf , it should contain a valid dictionary with the length attribute.

but anyway, AFAIK GenomicDBImport reads GVCF files (not VCF), if your vcf had been processed with HaplotypeCaller in GVCF mode it should contain a valid vcf header.

• 0 views • link
written by Pierre Lindenbaum Pierre Lindenbaum

Thanks, Pierre. I got confused because the original GenomicsDB app allows for VCF use.

• 0 views • link
written by aheritas • aheritas

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