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SPAdes command line options

Comprehensive SPAdes command-line reference: Advanced genomic assembly toolkit with flexible input options, specialized assembly modes, and performance optimization flags for researchers conducting complex sequencing data analysis.

SPAdes command line options

SPAdes command line options

Option Argument Description
Basic options    
-o <output_dir> Directory to store all the resulting files (required)
–sc   This flag is required for MDA (single-cell) data
–meta   This flag is required for metagenomic sample data
–rna   This flag is required for RNA-Seq data
–plasmid   Runs plasmidSPAdes pipeline for plasmid detection
–iontorrent   This flag is required for IonTorrent data
–test   Runs SPAdes on toy dataset
-h/–help   Prints this usage message
-v/–version   Prints version
Input data    
–12 <filename> File with interlaced forward and reverse paired-end reads
-1 <filename> File with forward paired-end reads
-2 <filename> File with reverse paired-end reads
-s <filename> File with unpaired reads
–merged <filename> File with merged forward and reverse paired-end reads
–pe<#>-12 <filename> Interlaced reads for paired-end library number
–pe<#>-1 <filename> Forward reads for paired-end library number
–pe<#>-2 <filename> Reverse reads for paired-end library number
–pe<#>-s <filename> Unpaired reads for paired-end library number
–pe<#>-m <filename> Merged reads for paired-end library number
–pe<#>- <orientation> Orientation of reads for paired-end library number
–s<#> <filename> File with unpaired reads for single reads library number
–mp<#>-12 <filename> Interlaced reads for mate-pair library number
–mp<#>-1 <filename> Forward reads for mate-pair library number
–mp<#>-2 <filename> Reverse reads for mate-pair library number
–mp<#>-s <filename> Unpaired reads for mate-pair library number
–mp<#>- <orientation> Orientation of reads for mate-pair library number
–hqmp<#>-12 <filename> Interlaced reads for high-quality mate-pair library number
–hqmp<#>-1 <filename> Forward reads for high-quality mate-pair library number
–hqmp<#>-2 <filename> Reverse reads for high-quality mate-pair library number
–hqmp<#>-s <filename> Unpaired reads for high-quality mate-pair library number
–hqmp<#>- <orientation> Orientation of reads for high-quality mate-pair library number
–nxmate<#>-1 <filename> Forward reads for Lucigen NxMate library number
–nxmate<#>-2 <filename> Reverse reads for Lucigen NxMate library number
–sanger <filename> File with Sanger reads
–pacbio <filename> File with PacBio reads
–nanopore <filename> File with Nanopore reads
–tslr <filename> File with TSLR-contigs
–trusted-contigs <filename> File with trusted contigs
–untrusted-contigs <filename> File with untrusted contigs
Pipeline options    
–only-error-correction   Runs only read error correction (without assembling)
–only-assembler   Runs only assembling (without read error correction)
–careful   Tries to reduce number of mismatches and short indels
–continue   Continue run from the last available check-point
–restart-from <cp> Restart run with updated options and from the specified check-point
–disable-gzip-output   Forces error correction not to compress the corrected reads
–disable-rr   Disables repeat resolution stage of assembling
Advanced options    
–dataset <filename> File with dataset description in YAML format
-t/–threads <int> Number of threads [default: 16]
-m/–memory <int> RAM limit for SPAdes in Gb [default: 250]
–tmp-dir <dirname> Directory for temporary files [default: /tmp]
-k <int,int,...> Comma-separated list of k-mer sizes [default: ‘auto’]
–cov-cutoff <float> Coverage cutoff value [default: ‘off’]
–phred-offset <33 or 64> PHRED quality offset in the input reads [default: auto-detect]

Performance Recommendations

[x] Use --careful for improved accuracy [x] Adjust k-mer sizes for different genome complexities [x] Monitor memory usage with --memory-limit

SPAdes basic command line usage

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spades.py [options] -o <output_dir>

Examples

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spades.py -1 SRR27753935_1.fastq -2 SRR27753935_2.fastq \
    -m 32 -t 16 -k 21,33,55 \
    --careful \
    -o spades_results

References

Feedback and bug reports Please, leave your comments and bug reports at SPAdes GitHub repository tracker.

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