Interactive visualization of nanopore sequencing signal data with <i>Squigualiser</i>
Hiruna Samarakoon, Kisaru Liyanage, James M. Ferguson, Sri Parameswaran, Hasindu Gamaarachchi, Ira W. Deveson
Abstract
MOTIVATION: Nanopore sequencing current signal data can be 'basecalled' into sequence information or analysed directly, with the capacity to identify diverse molecular features, such as DNA/RNA base modifications and secondary structures. However, raw signal data is large and complex, and there is a need for improved visualization strategies to facilitate signal analysis, exploration and tool development. RESULTS: Squigualiser (Squiggle visualiser) is a toolkit for intuitive, interactive visualization of sequence-aligned signal data, which currently supports both DNA and RNA sequencing data from Oxford Nanopore Technologies instruments. Squigualiser is compatible with a wide range of alternative signal-alignment software packages and enables visualization of both signal-to-read and signal-to-reference aligned data at single-base resolution. Squigualiser generates an interactive signal browser view (HTML file), in which the user can navigate across a genome/transcriptome region and customize the display. Multiple independent reads are integrated into a 'signal pileup' format and different datasets can be displayed as parallel tracks. Although other methods exist, Squigualiser provides the community with a software package purpose-built for raw signal data visualization, incorporating a range of new and existing features into a unified platform. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Squigualiser is an open-source package under an MIT licence: https://github.com/hiruna72/squigualiser. The software was developed using Python 3.8 and can be installed with pip or bioconda or executed directly using prebuilt binaries provided with each release.