cutadapt
- Version:
4
- Category:
bio
- Cluster:
Loki
Description
Cutadapt finds and removes adapter sequences, primers, poly-A tails, and other types of unwanted sequence from your high-throughput sequencing reads. Cutadapt helps with these trimming tasks by finding the adapter or primer sequences in an error-tolerant way. It can also modify and filter single-end and paired-end reads in various ways.
Documentation
Usage:
cutadapt -a ADAPTER [options] [-o output.fastq] input.fastq
For paired-end reads:
cutadapt -a ADAPT1 -A ADAPT2 [options] -o out1.fastq -p out2.fastq in1.fastq in2.fastq
Replace "ADAPTER" with the actual sequence of your 3' adapter. IUPAC wildcard
characters are supported. All reads from input.fastq will be written to
output.fastq with the adapter sequence removed. Adapter matching is
error-tolerant. Multiple adapter sequences can be given (use further -a
options), but only the best-matching adapter will be removed.
Input may also be in FASTA format. Compressed input and output is supported and
auto-detected from the file name (.gz, .xz, .bz2). Use the file name '-' for
standard input/output. Without the -o option, output is sent to standard output.
Citation:
Marcel Martin. Cutadapt removes adapter sequences from high-throughput
sequencing reads. EMBnet.Journal, 17(1):10-12, May 2011.
http://dx.doi.org/10.14806/ej.17.1.200
Run "cutadapt --help" to see all command-line options.
See https://cutadapt.readthedocs.io/ for full documentation.
Options:
-h, --help Show this help message and exit
--version Show version number and exit
--debug Print debug log. Use twice to also print DP matrices
-j CORES, --cores CORES
Number of CPU cores to use. Use 0 to auto-detect. Default: 1
Finding adapters:
Parameters -a, -g, -b specify adapters to be removed from each read (or from R1 if data is paired-
end. If specified multiple times, only the best matching adapter is trimmed (but see the --times
option). Use notation 'file:FILE' to read adapter sequences from a FASTA file.
-a ADAPTER, --adapter ADAPTER
Sequence of an adapter ligated to the 3' end (paired data: of the first read).
The adapter and subsequent bases are trimmed. If a '$' character is appended
('anchoring'), the adapter is only found if it is a suffix of the read.
-g ADAPTER, --front ADAPTER
Sequence of an adapter ligated to the 5' end (paired data: of the first read).
The adapter and any preceding bases are trimmed. Partial matches at the 5' end
are allowed. If a '^' character is prepended ('anchoring'), the adapter is only
found if it is a prefix of the read.
-b ADAPTER, --anywhere ADAPTER
Sequence of an adapter that may be ligated to the 5' or 3' end (paired data: of
the first read). Both types of matches as described under -a and -g are allowed.
If the first base of the read is part of the match, the behavior is as with -g,
otherwise as with -a. This option is mostly for rescuing failed library
preparations - do not use if you know which end your adapter was ligated to!
-e E, --error-rate E, --errors E
Maximum allowed error rate (if 0 <= E < 1), or absolute number of errors for
full-length adapter match (if E is an integer >= 1). Error rate = no. of errors
divided by length of matching region. Default: 0.1 (10%)
--no-indels Allow only mismatches in alignments. Default: allow both mismatches and indels
-n COUNT, --times COUNT
Remove up to COUNT adapters from each read. Default: 1
-O MINLENGTH, --overlap MINLENGTH
Require MINLENGTH overlap between read and adapter for an adapter to be found.
Default: 3
--match-read-wildcards
Interpret IUPAC wildcards in reads. Default: False
-N, --no-match-adapter-wildcards
Do not interpret IUPAC wildcards in adapters.
--action {trim,retain,mask,lowercase,none}
What to do if a match was found. trim: trim adapter and up- or downstream
sequence; retain: trim, but retain adapter; mask: replace with 'N' characters;
lowercase: convert to lowercase; none: leave unchanged. Default: trim
--rc, --revcomp Check both the read and its reverse complement for adapter matches. If match is
on reverse-complemented version, output that one. Default: check only read
Additional read modifications:
-u LENGTH, --cut LENGTH
Remove bases from each read (first read only if paired). If LENGTH is positive,
remove bases from the beginning. If LENGTH is negative, remove bases from the
end. Can be used twice if LENGTHs have different signs. This is applied *before*
adapter trimming.
--nextseq-trim 3'CUTOFF
NextSeq-specific quality trimming (each read). Trims also dark cycles appearing
as high-quality G bases.
-q [5'CUTOFF,]3'CUTOFF, --quality-cutoff [5'CUTOFF,]3'CUTOFF
Trim low-quality bases from 5' and/or 3' ends of each read before adapter
removal. Applied to both reads if data is paired. If one value is given, only
the 3' end is trimmed. If two comma-separated cutoffs are given, the 5' end is
trimmed with the first cutoff, the 3' end with the second.
--quality-base N Assume that quality values in FASTQ are encoded as ascii(quality + N). This
needs to be set to 64 for some old Illumina FASTQ files. Default: 33
--length LENGTH, -l LENGTH
Shorten reads to LENGTH. Positive values remove bases at the end while negative
ones remove bases at the beginning. This and the following modifications are
applied after adapter trimming.
--trim-n Trim N's on ends of reads.
--length-tag TAG Search for TAG followed by a decimal number in the description field of the
read. Replace the decimal number with the correct length of the trimmed read.
For example, use --length-tag 'length=' to correct fields like 'length=123'.
--strip-suffix STRIP_SUFFIX
Remove this suffix from read names if present. Can be given multiple times.
-x PREFIX, --prefix PREFIX
Add this prefix to read names. Use {name} to insert the name of the matching
adapter.
-y SUFFIX, --suffix SUFFIX
Add this suffix to read names; can also include {name}
--rename TEMPLATE Rename reads using TEMPLATE containing variables such as {id}, {adapter_name}
etc. (see documentation)
--zero-cap, -z Change negative quality values to zero.
Filtering of processed reads:
Filters are applied after above read modifications. Paired-end reads are always discarded pairwise
(see also --pair-filter).
-m LEN[:LEN2], --minimum-length LEN[:LEN2]
Discard reads shorter than LEN. Default: 0
-M LEN[:LEN2], --maximum-length LEN[:LEN2]
Discard reads longer than LEN. Default: no limit
--max-n COUNT Discard reads with more than COUNT 'N' bases. If COUNT is a number between 0 and
1, it is interpreted as a fraction of the read length.
--max-expected-errors ERRORS, --max-ee ERRORS
Discard reads whose expected number of errors (computed from quality values)
exceeds ERRORS.
--discard-trimmed, --discard
Discard reads that contain an adapter. Use also -O to avoid discarding too many
randomly matching reads.
--discard-untrimmed, --trimmed-only
Discard reads that do not contain an adapter.
--discard-casava Discard reads that did not pass CASAVA filtering (header has :Y:).
Output:
--quiet Print only error messages.
--report {full,minimal}
Which type of report to print: 'full' or 'minimal'. Default: full
--json FILE Dump report in JSON format to FILE
-o FILE, --output FILE
Write trimmed reads to FILE. FASTQ or FASTA format is chosen depending on input.
Summary report is sent to standard output. Use '{name}' for demultiplexing (see
docs). Default: write to standard output
--fasta Output FASTA to standard output even on FASTQ input.
-Z Use compression level 1 for gzipped output files (faster, but uses more space)
--info-file FILE Write information about each read and its adapter matches into FILE. See the
documentation for the file format.
-r FILE, --rest-file FILE
When the adapter matches in the middle of a read, write the rest (after the
adapter) to FILE.
--wildcard-file FILE When the adapter has N wildcard bases, write adapter bases matching wildcard
positions to FILE. (Inaccurate with indels.)
--too-short-output FILE
Write reads that are too short (according to length specified by -m) to FILE.
Default: discard reads
--too-long-output FILE
Write reads that are too long (according to length specified by -M) to FILE.
Default: discard reads
--untrimmed-output FILE
Write reads that do not contain any adapter to FILE. Default: output to same
file as trimmed reads
Paired-end options:
The -A/-G/-B/-U/-Q options work like their lowercase counterparts, but are applied to R2 (second
read in pair)
-A ADAPTER 3' adapter to be removed from R2
-G ADAPTER 5' adapter to be removed from R2
-B ADAPTER 5'/3 adapter to be removed from R2
-U LENGTH Remove LENGTH bases from R2
-Q [5'CUTOFF,]3'CUTOFF
Quality-trimming cutoff for R2. Default: same as for R1
-p FILE, --paired-output FILE
Write R2 to FILE.
--pair-adapters Treat adapters given with -a/-A etc. as pairs. Either both or none are removed
from each read pair.
--pair-filter {any,both,first}
Which of the reads in a paired-end read have to match the filtering criterion in
order for the pair to be filtered. Default: any
--interleaved Read and/or write interleaved paired-end reads.
--untrimmed-paired-output FILE
Write second read in a pair to this FILE when no adapter was found. Use with
--untrimmed-output. Default: output to same file as trimmed reads
--too-short-paired-output FILE
Write second read in a pair to this file if pair is too short.
--too-long-paired-output FILE
Write second read in a pair to this file if pair is too long.
Examples/Usage
List available modules:
$ module avail cutadapt
Load the Cutadapt module:
$ module load bio/cutadapt/4.0
Check the loaded modules:
$ module list
Unload the Cutadapt module:
$ module unload bio/cutadapt/4.0
Installation
Source code is obtained from Cutadapt