bigBed files store
genomic annotation data (particularly exons) in an optionally compressed,
indexed form that allows rapid retrieval and visualization. bigBed files
can be loaded directly into HiGlass using the gene-bed12-annotation
datatype and bigbed
filetype:
docker exec higlass-container python \
higlass-server/manage.py ingest_tileset \
--filename /tmp/annotations.bigBed \
--filetype bigbed \
--datatype gene-bed12-annotation \
--coordSystem hg38
Important: BigBed files have to be associated with a chromosome order!!
This means that there needs to be a chromsizes file for the
specified assembly (coordSystem) in the higlass database. If no coordSystem
is specified for the bigBed file in ingest_tileset
, HiGlass will try to
find one in the database that matches the chromosomes present in the bigBed file.
If a chromsizes
tileset is found, it's coordSystem
will also be used for
the bigBed file. If none are found, the import will fail. If more than one is found,
the import will also fail. If a coordSystem is specified for the bigBed, but no
chromsizes
are found on the server, the import will fail.
TLDR: The simplest way to import a bigBed is to have a chromsizes
present e.g.
ingest_tileset --filetype chromsizes-tsv --datatype chromsizes --coordSystem hg38 --filename chromSizes.hg38.tsv
and then to add the bigBed with the same coordSystem
:
ingest_tileset --filetype bigbed --datatype gene-bed12-annotation --coordSystem hg38 --filename annotations.bigBed