EMBOSS: checktrans

| checktrans

## Function

Reports STOP codons and ORF statistics of a protein

## Description

Reads in a protein sequence containing stops, and writes a report of any open reading frames (continuous protein sequence with no stops) that are greater than a minimum size. The default minimum ORF size is 100 residues. It writes out any ORF sequences.

The input sequence might typically have been produced by transeq.

Note that if you have only translated a nucleic sequence in one frame, checktrans will miss possible ORFs in other frames. You have to give checktrans translations in all three (six?) frames in order for it to be effective at finding all possible ORFs.

## Usage

Here is a sample session with checktrans

    % checktrans
    Reports STOP codons and ORF statistics of a protein
    Input protein sequence(s): paamir.pep
    Minimum ORF Length to report [100]:
    Output file [paamir_1.checktrans]:
    output sequence(s) [paamir_1.fasta]:
    Features output [paamir_1.gff]:

Go to the input files for this example
Go to the output files for this example

## Command line arguments

       Standard (Mandatory) qualifiers:
      [-sequence]          seqall     Protein sequence(s) filename and optional
                                      format, or reference (input USA)
       -orfml              integer    [100] Minimum ORF Length to report (Integer
                                      1 or more)
      [-outfile]           outfile    [*.checktrans] Output file name
      [-outseq]            seqoutall  [.] Sequence file to hold
                                      output ORF sequences
      [-outfeat]           featout    [unknown.gff] File for output features

       Additional (Optional) qualifiers:
       -[no]addlast        boolean    [Y] An asterisk in the protein sequence
                                      indicates the position of a STOP codon.
                                      Checktrans assumes that all ORFs end in a
                                      STOP codon. Forcing the sequence to end with
                                      an asterisk, if there is not one there
                                      already, makes checktrans treat the end as a
                                      potential ORF. If an asterisk is added, it
                                      is not included in the reported count of
                                      STOPs.

       Advanced (Unprompted) qualifiers: (none)
       Associated qualifiers:

       "-sequence" associated qualifiers
       -sbegin1            integer    Start of each sequence to be used
       -send1              integer    End of each sequence to be used
       -sreverse1          boolean    Reverse (if DNA)
       -sask1              boolean    Ask for begin/end/reverse
       -snucleotide1       boolean    Sequence is nucleotide
       -sprotein1          boolean    Sequence is protein
       -slower1            boolean    Make lower case
       -supper1            boolean    Make upper case
       -sformat1           string     Input sequence format
       -sdbname1           string     Database name
       -sid1               string     Entryname
       -ufo1               string     UFO features
       -fformat1           string     Features format
       -fopenfile1         string     Features file name

       "-outfile" associated qualifiers
       -odirectory2        string     Output directory

       "-outseq" associated qualifiers
       -osformat3          string     Output seq format
       -osextension3       string     File name extension
       -osname3            string     Base file name
       -osdirectory3       string     Output directory
       -osdbname3          string     Database name to add
       -ossingle3          boolean    Separate file for each entry
       -oufo3              string     UFO features
       -offormat3          string     Features format
       -ofname3            string     Features file name
       -ofdirectory3       string     Output directory

       "-outfeat" associated qualifiers
       -offormat4          string     Output feature format
       -ofopenfile4        string     Features file name
       -ofextension4       string     File name extension
       -ofdirectory4       string     Output directory
       -ofname4            string     Base file name
       -ofsingle4          boolean    Separate file for each entry

       General qualifiers:
       -auto               boolean    Turn off prompts
       -stdout             boolean    Write standard output
       -filter             boolean    Read standard input, write standard output
       -options            boolean    Prompt for standard and additional values
       -debug              boolean    Write debug output to program.dbg
       -verbose            boolean    Report some/full command line options
       -help               boolean    Report command line options. More
                                      information on associated and general
                                      qualifiers can be found with -help -verbose
       -warning            boolean    Report warnings
       -error              boolean    Report errors
       -fatal              boolean    Report fatal errors
       -die                boolean    Report dying program messages

Standard (Mandatory) qualifiers | Allowed values | Default
--- | --- | ---
[-sequence] (Parameter 1) | Protein sequence(s) filename and optional format, or reference (input USA) | Readable sequence(s) | Required
-orfml | Minimum ORF Length to report | Integer 1 or more | 100
[-outfile] (Parameter 2) | Output file name | Output file | <*>.checktrans
[-outseq] (Parameter 3) | Sequence file to hold output ORF sequences | Writeable sequence(s) | <*>.format
[-outfeat] (Parameter 4) | File for output features | Writeable feature table | unknown.gff
Additional (Optional) qualifiers | Allowed values | Default
-[no]addlast | An asterisk in the protein sequence indicates the position of a STOP codon. Checktrans assumes that all ORFs end in a STOP codon. Forcing the sequence to end with an asterisk, if there is not one there already, makes checktrans treat the end as a potential ORF. If an asterisk is added, it is not included in the reported count of STOPs. | Boolean value Yes/No | Yes
Advanced (Unprompted) qualifiers | Allowed values | Default
(none)

## Input file format

This program reads the USA of a protein sequence with STOP codons in it.

### Input files for usage example

### File: paamir.pep

    >PAAMIR_1 Pseudomonas aeruginosa amiC and amiR gene for aliphatic amidase regulation
    GTAGRASARSPPAGRRELHDLPGEPGARAGSLRTALSDSHRRGNGWDRTRSGR*SACCSP
    KPASPPISSARTRMAHCSRSSN*TARAASAVARSKRCPRTPAATRTAIGCAPRTSFATGG
    YGSSWAATCRTRARR*CRWSSAPTRCSATRPPTRASSIRRTSSTAVRRRTRTVRRWRRT*
    FATTASGWCSSARTTSIRGKATM*CATCIASTAARCSRKSTFRCIPPTTTCSAPSSASTR
    RAPTWSSPPWWAPAPPSCIAPSPVATATAGGRRSPA*PPARRRWRRWRVTWQRGRWWSRL
    TSPASIRPPAGPSSRPAMVSSRRTRPSPPGPRRPTGRPCCSAAPRRPQATGGWKTCSGTC
    TTSTSTRHRGRSGWSARTTTAACLRASRKSMRAACSRSAGSRPNRFAPTLMSSCITSTTG
    PPAWAGDRSHERQLAARQPARVAGAGPQPAGGGQRRPGLAADPHRLFGAPVLAAAGSLRR
    AGGRGLHQHFPEWPPRRDRCAARRRDSAHYPGGAGGVRKPRGALADHRAGVPRRDHPAAR
    CPPGAACAGIGAAHQRGNGEAEAEDRAAPGPHRRPGPDQPGQGVADAAPWLGRARGAPAP
    VAGSDEAARADPEDRSGVAGKRAVRLSDPGRPEQ*QEGYRHHAGTGSAVRWRGAVSQCRL
    VAGQDQRSGGGGDQLPGRRAERLRRVLPDLFRSSRAGLAEGRSADPAIRFYLSVGGRQPV
    PRX

## Output file format

This program writes three files: the ORF report file (paamir_1.checktrans), the output sequence file (paamir_1.fasta) and the feature file (paamir_1.out3) which is in GFF format by default.

The ORF report file gives the numeric count of the ORF, the position of the terminating STOP codon, the length of the ORF, its start and end positions and the name of the sequence it has been written out as.

The name of the output sequences is constructed from the name of the input sequence followed by an underscore and then the numeric count of the ORF (e.g. 'PAAMIR_1_7').

### Output files for usage example

### File: paamir_1.checktrans

    CHECKTRANS of PAAMIR_1 from 1 to 724

    	ORF#	Pos	Len	ORF Range	Sequence name

    	7	635	357	278-634	PAAMIR_1_7

    	Total STOPS:     7

### File: paamir_1.fasta

    >PAAMIR_1_7
    PPARRRWRRWRVTWQRGRWWSRLTSPASIRPPAGPSSRPAMVSSRRTRPSPPGPRRPTGR
    PCCSAAPRRPQATGGWKTCSGTCTTSTSTRHRGRSGWSARTTTAACLRASRKSMRAACSR
    SAGSRPNRFAPTLMSSCITSTTGPPAWAGDRSHERQLAARQPARVAGAGPQPAGGGQRRP
    GLAADPHRLFGAPVLAAAGSLRRAGGRGLHQHFPEWPPRRDRCAARRRDSAHYPGGAGGV
    RKPRGALADHRAGVPRRDHPAARCPPGAACAGIGAAHQRGNGEAEAEDRAAPGPHRRPGP
    DQPGQGVADAAPWLGRARGAPAPVAGSDEAARADPEDRSGVAGKRAVRLSDPGRPEQ

### File: paamir_1.gff

    ##gff-version 2.0
    ##date 2006-07-15
    ##Type Protein PAAMIR_1
    PAAMIR_1	checktrans	misc_feature	278	634	0.000	+	.	Sequence "PAAMIR_1.1"

## Data files

None.

## Notes

None.

## References

None.

## Warnings

None.

## Diagnostic Error Messages

None.

## Exit status

This program always exits with a status of 0.

## Known bugs

None.

## See also

Program name | Description
--- | ---
backtranambig | Back translate a protein sequence to ambiguous codons
backtranseq | Back translate a protein sequence
charge | Protein charge plot
compseq | Count composition of dimer/trimer/etc words in a sequence
emowse | Protein identification by mass spectrometry
freak | Residue/base frequency table or plot
iep | Calculates the isoelectric point of a protein
mwcontam | Shows molwts that match across a set of files
mwfilter | Filter noisy molwts from mass spec output
octanol | Displays protein hydropathy
pepinfo | Plots simple amino acid properties in parallel
pepstats | Protein statistics
pepwindow | Displays protein hydropathy
pepwindowall | Displays protein hydropathy of a set of sequences

## Author(s)

Rodrigo Lopez (rls © ebi.ac.uk)
European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK and modified by Gary Williams (gwilliam © rfcgr.mrc.ac.uk)
MRC Rosalind Franklin Centre for Genomics Research Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SB, UK to output the sequence data to a single file in the conventional EMBOSS style.

## History

Completed 24 Feb 2000 - Rodrigo Lopez

Modified 2 March 2000 - Gary Williams

## Target users

This program is intended to be used by everyone and everything, from naive users to embedded scripts.

## Comments

None