• Cuffdiff options:
  • Cuffdiff advanced options:
  • FPKM tracking files
  • Count tracking files
  • Read group tracking files
  • Differential expression tests
  • Differential splicing tests - splicing.diff
  • Differential coding output - cds.diff
  • Differential promoter use - promoters.diff
  • Read group info - read_groups.info
• Library Types
• Library Normalization Methods

Running Cuffdiff

Cufflinks includes a program, “Cuffdiff”, that you can use to find significant changes in transcript expression, splicing, and promoter use. From the command line, run cuffdiff as follows:

cuffdiff [options]* <transcripts.gtf> \

<sample1_replicate1.sam[,…,sample1_replicateM.sam]> \

<sample2_replicate1.sam[,…,sample2_replicateM.sam]> … \

[sampleN.sam_replicate1.sam[,…,sample2_replicateM.sam]]

###Cuffdiff arguments

<transcripts.(gtf/gff)>

A transcript annotation file produced by cufflinks, cuffcompare, or other source.

<sample1.(sam/bam/cxb)>

A SAM file of aligned RNA-Seq reads. If more than two are provided, Cuffdiff tests for differential expression and regulation between all pairs of samples.

Cuffdiff options:

-h/–help

Prints the help message and exits

-o/–output-dir <string>

Sets the name of the directory in which Cuffdiff will write all of its output. The default is “./”.

-L/–labels <label1,label2,…,labelN>

Specify a label for each sample, which will be included in various output files produced by Cuffdiff.

-p/–num-threads <int>

Use this many threads to align reads. The default is 1.

-T/–time-series

Instructs Cuffdiff to analyze the provided samples as a time series, rather than testing for differences between all pairs of samples. Samples should be provided in increasing time order at the command line (e.g first time point SAM, second timepoint SAM, etc.)

–total-hits-norm

With this option, Cufflinks counts all fragments, including those not compatible with any reference transcript, towards the number of mapped fragments used in the FPKM denominator. It is inactive by default.

–compatible-hits-norm

With this option, Cufflinks counts only those fragments compatible with some reference transcript towards the number of mapped fragments used in the FPKM denominator. Using this mode is generally recommended in Cuffdiff to reduce certain types of bias caused by differential amounts of ribosomal reads which can create the impression of falsely differentially expressed genes. It is active by default.

-b/–frag-bias-correct <genome.fa>

Providing Cufflinks with the multifasta file your reads were mapped to via this option instructs it to run our bias detection and correction algorithm which can significantly improve accuracy of transcript abundance estimates. See How Cufflinks Workshow_it_works/index.html#) for more details.

-u/–multi-read-correct

Tells Cufflinks to do an initial estimation procedure to more accurately weight reads mapping to multiple locations in the genome. See How Cufflinks Works for more details.

-c/–min-alignment-count <int>

The minimum number of alignments in a locus for needed to conduct significance testing on changes in that locus observed between samples. If no testing is performed, changes in the locus are deemed not signficant, and the locus’ observed changes don’t contribute to correction for multiple testing. The default is 10 fragment alignments.

-M/–mask-file <mask.(gtf/gff)>

Tells Cuffdiff to ignore all reads that could have come from transcripts in this GTF file. We recommend including any annotated rRNA, mitochondrial transcripts other abundant transcripts you wish to ignore in your analysis in this file. Due to variable efficiency of mRNA enrichment methods and rRNA depletion kits, masking these transcripts often improves the overall robustness of transcript abundance estimates.

–FDR <float>

The allowed false discovery rate. The default is 0.05.

–library-type

See Library Types

–library-norm-method

See Library Normalization Methods

–dispersion-method

See Cross-replicate dispersion estimation methods

Cuffdiff advanced options:

-m/–frag-len-mean <int>

This is the expected (mean) fragment length. The default is 200bp.

Note: Cuffdiff now learns the fragment length mean for each SAM file, so using this option is no longer recommended with paired-end reads.

-s/–frag-len-std-dev <int>

The standard deviation for the distribution on fragment lengths. The default is 80bp.

Note: Cuffdiff now learns the fragment length standard deviation for each SAM file, so using this option is no longer recommended with paired-end reads.

–max-mle-iterations <int>

Sets the number of iterations allowed during maximum likelihood estimation of abundances. Default: 5000

-v/–verbose

Print lots of status updates and other diagnostic information.

-q/–quiet

Suppress messages other than serious warnings and errors.

–no-update-check

Turns off the automatic routine that contacts the Cufflinks server to check for a more recent version.

–poisson-dispersion

Use the Poisson fragment dispersion model instead of learning one in each condition.

–emit-count-tables

Cuffdiff will output a file for each condition (called <sample>_counts.txt) containing the fragment counts, fragment count variances, and fitted variance model. For internal debugging only. This option will be removed in a future version of Cuffdiff.

-F/–min-isoform-fraction <0.0-1.0>

Cuffdiff will round down to zero the abundance of alternative isoforms quantified at below the specified fraction of the major isoforms. This is done after MLE estimation but before MAP estimation to improve robustness of confidence interval generation and differential expression analysis. The default is 1e-5, and we recommend you not alter this parameter.

–max-bundle-frags <int>

Sets the maximum number of fragments a locus may have before being skipped. Skipped loci are marked with status HIDATA. Default: 1000000

–max-frag-count-draws <int>

Cuffdiff will make this many draws from each transcript’s predicted negative binomial random numbder generator. Each draw is a number of fragments that will be probabilistically assigned to the transcripts in the transcriptome. Used to estimate the variance-covariance matrix on assigned fragment counts. Default: 100.

–max-frag-assign-draws <int>

For each fragment drawn from a transcript, Cuffdiff will assign it this many times (probabilistically), thus estimating the assignment uncertainty for each transcript. Used to estimate the variance-covariance matrix on assigned fragment counts. Default: 50.

–min-reps-for-js-test <int>

Cuffdiff won’t test genes for differential regulation unless the conditions in question have at least this many replicates. Default: 3.

**–no-effective-length-correction

Cuffdiff will not employ its “effective” length normalization to transcript FPKM.

–no-length-correction

Cuffdiff will not normalize fragment counts by transcript length at all. Use this option when fragment count is independent of the size of the features being quantified (e.g. for small RNA libraries, where no fragmentation takes place, or 3 prime end sequencing, where sampled RNA fragments are all essentially the same length). Experimental option, use with caution.

##Cuffdiff input Files

Cuffdiff takes a GTF2/GFF3 file of transcripts as input, along with two or more SAM files containing the fragment alignments for two or more samples. It produces a number of output files that contain test results for changes in expression at the level of transcripts, primary transcripts, and genes. It also tracks changes in the relative abundance of transcripts sharing a common transcription start site, and in the relative abundances of the primary transcripts of each gene. Tracking the former allows one to see changes in splicing, and the latter lets one see changes in relative promoter use within a gene.

If you have more than one replicate for a sample, supply the SAM files for the sample as a single comma-separated list. It is not necessary to have the same number of replicates for each sample.

Note that Cuffdiff can also accepted BAM files (which are binary, compressed SAM files). It can also accept CXB files produced by Cuffquant. Note that mixing SAM and BAM files is supported, but you cannot currently mix CXB and SAM/BAM. If one of the samples is supplied as a CXB file, all of the samples must be supplied as CXB files.

Cuffdiff requires that transcripts in the input GTF be annotated with certain attributes in order to look for changes in primary transcript expression, splicing, coding output, and promoter use. These attributes are:

tss_id

The ID of this transcript’s inferred start site. Determines which primary transcript this processed transcript is believed to come from. Cuffcompare appends this attribute to every transcript reported in the .combined.gtf file.

p_id

The ID of the coding sequence this transcript contains. This attribute is attached by Cuffcompare to the .combined.gtf records only when it is run with a reference annotation that include CDS records. Further, differential CDS analysis is only performed when all isoforms of a gene have p_id attributes, because neither Cufflinks nor Cuffcompare attempt to assign an open reading frame to transcripts.

Note: If an arbitrary GTF/GFF3 file is used as input (instead of the .combined.gtf file produced by Cuffcompare), these attributes will not be present, but Cuffcompare can still be used to obtain these attributes with a command like this:

cuffcompare -s /path/to/genome_seqs.fa -CG -r annotation.gtf annotation.gtf

The resulting cuffcmp.combined.gtf file created by this command will have the tss_id and p_id attributes added to each record and this file can be used as input for cuffdiff.

##Cuffdiff output Files

FPKM tracking files

Cuffdiff calculates the FPKM of each transcript, primary transcript, and gene in each sample. Primary transcript and gene FPKMs are computed by summing the FPKMs of transcripts in each primary transcript group or gene group. The results are output in FPKM tracking files in the format described here. There are four FPKM tracking files:

Count tracking files

Cuffdiff estimates the number of fragments that originated from each transcript, primary transcript, and gene in each sample. Primary transcript and gene counts are computed by summing the counts of transcripts in each primary transcript group or gene group. The results are output in count tracking files in the format described here. There are four Count tracking files:

Read group tracking files

Cuffdiff calculates the expression and fragment count for each transcript, primary transcript, and gene in each replicate. The results are output in per-replicate tracking files in the format described here. There are four read group tracking files:

Differential expression tests

This tab delimited file lists the results of differential expression testing between samples for spliced transcripts, primary transcripts, genes, and coding sequences. Four files are created:

Each of the above files has the following format:

Differential splicing tests - splicing.diff

This tab delimited file lists, for each primary transcript, the amount of isoform switching detected among its isoforms, i.e. how much differential splicing exists between isoforms processed from a single primary transcript. Only primary transcripts from which two or more isoforms are spliced are listed in this file.

Differential coding output - cds.diff

This tab delimited file lists, for each gene, the amount of overloading detected among its coding sequences, i.e. how much differential CDS output exists between samples. Only genes producing two or more distinct CDS (i.e. multi-protein genes) are listed here.

Differential promoter use - promoters.diff

This tab delimited file lists, for each gene, the amount of overloading detected among its primary transcripts, i.e. how much differential promoter use exists between samples. Only genes producing two or more distinct primary transcripts (i.e. multi-promoter genes) are listed here.

Read group info - read_groups.info

This tab delimited file lists, for each replicate, key properties used by Cuffdiff during quantification, such as library normalization factors. The read_groups.info file has the following format:

Library Types

In cases where Cufflinks cannot determine the platform and protocol used to generate input reads, you can supply this information manually, which will allow Cufflinks to infer source strand information with certain protocols. The available options are listed below. For paired-end data, we currently only support protocols where reads are point towards each other.

Please contact tophat.cufflinks@gmail.com to request support for a new protocol.

Library Normalization Methods

You can control how library sizes (i.e. sequencing depths) are normalized in Cufflinks and Cuffdiff. Cuffdiff has several methods that require multiple libraries in order to work. Library normalization methods supported by Cufflinks work on one library at a time.

#Cross-replicate dispersion estimation methods

Cuffdiff works by modeling the variance in fragment counts across replicates as a function of the mean fragment count across replicates. Strictly speaking, models a quantitity called dispersion - the variance present in a group of samples beyond what is expected from a simple Poisson model of RNA_Seq. You can control how Cuffdiff constructs its model of dispersion in locus fragment counts. Each condition that has replicates can receive its own model, or Cuffdiff can use a global model for all conditions. All of these policies are identical to those used by DESeq (Anders and Huber, Genome Biology, 2010)

Which method you choose largely depends on whether you expect variability in each group of samples to be similar. For example, if you are comparing two groups, A and B, where A has low cross-replicate variability and B has high variability, it may be best to choose per-condition. However, if the conditions have similar levels of variability, you might stick with the default, which sometimes provides a more robust model, especially in cases where each group has few replicates. Finally, if you only have a single replicate in each condition, you must use blind, which treats all samples in the experiment as replicates of a single condition. This method works well when you expect the samples to have very few differentially expressed genes. If there are many differentially expressed genes, Cuffdiff will construct an overly conservative model and you may not get any significant calls. In this case, you will need more replicates in your experiment.