Querying the GEMINI database

The real power in the GEMINI framework lies in the fact that all of your genetic variants have been stored in a convenient database in the context of a wealth of genome annotations that facilitate variant interpretation. The expressive power of SQL allows one to pose intricate questions of one’s variation data.

Note

If you are unfamiliar with SQL, sqlzoo has a decent online tutorial describing the basics. Really all you need to learn is the SELECT statement, and the examples below will give you a flavor of how to compose base SQL queries against the GEMINI framework.

Basic queries

GEMINI has a specific tool for querying a gemini database that has been loaded using the gemini load command. That’s right, the tool is called gemini query. Below are a few basic queries that give you a sense of how to interact with the gemini database using the query tool.

  1. Extract all transitions with a call rate > 95%
$ gemini query -q "select * from variants \
                      where sub_type = 'ts' \
                      and call_rate >= 0.95" my.db
  1. Extract all loss-of-function variants with an alternate allele frequency < 1%:
$ gemini query -q "select * from variants \
                      where is_lof = 1 \
                      and aaf >= 0.01" my.db
  1. Extract the nucleotide diversity for each variant:
$ gemini query -q "select chrom, start, end, pi from variants" my.db
  1. Combine GEMINI with bedtools to compute nucleotide diversity estimates across 100kb windows:
$ gemini query -q "select chrom, start, end, pi from variants \
                      order by chrom, start, end" my.db | \
  bedtools map -a hg19.windows.bed -b - -c 4 -o mean

Selecting sample genotypes

The above examples illustrate ad hoc queries that do not request or filter upon the genotypes of individual samples. Since GEMINI stores the genotype information for each variant in compressed arrays that are stored as BLOBs in the database, standard SQL queries cannot directly access individual genotypes. However, we have enhanced the SQL syntax to support such queries with C “struct-like” access. For example, to retrieve the alleles for a given sample’s (in this case, sample 1094PC0009), one would add gts.1094PC0009 to the select statement.

Here is an example of selecting the genotype alleles for four different samples (note the examples below use the test.snpEff.vcf.db file that is created in the ./test directory when you run the bash master-test.sh command as described above):

$ gemini query -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene, \
                          gts.1094PC0005, \
                          gts.1094PC0009, \
                          gts.1094PC0012, \
                          gts.1094PC0013 \
                   from variants" test.snpEff.vcf.db

chr1        30547   30548   T       G       FAM138A ./.     ./.     ./.     ./.
chr1        30859   30860   G       C       FAM138A G/G     G/G     G/G     G/G
chr1        30866   30869   CCT     C       FAM138A CCT/CCT CCT/CCT CCT/C   CCT/CCT
chr1        30894   30895   T       C       FAM138A T/C     T/C     T/T     T/T
chr1        30922   30923   G       T       FAM138A ./.     ./.     ./.     ./.
chr1        69269   69270   A       G       OR4F5   ./.     ./.     G/G     G/G
chr1        69427   69428   T       G       OR4F5   T/T     T/T     T/T     T/T
chr1        69510   69511   A       G       OR4F5   ./.     ./.     A/G     A/G
chr1        69760   69761   A       T       OR4F5   A/A     A/T     A/A     A/A
chr1        69870   69871   G       A       OR4F5   ./.     G/G     G/G     G/G

You can also add a header so that you can keep track of who’s who:

$ gemini query -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene, \
                          gts.1094PC0005, \
                          gts.1094PC0009, \
                          gts.1094PC0012, \
                          gts.1094PC0013 \
                   from variants" \
                   --header test.snpEff.vcf.db

chrom       start   end     ref     alt     gene gts.1094PC0005     gts.1094PC0009  gts.1094PC0012  gts.1094PC0013
chr1        30547   30548   T       G       FAM138A ./.     ./.     ./.     ./.
chr1        30859   30860   G       C       FAM138A G/G     G/G     G/G     G/G
chr1        30866   30869   CCT     C       FAM138A CCT/CCT CCT/CCT CCT/C   CCT/CCT
chr1        30894   30895   T       C       FAM138A T/C     T/C     T/T     T/T
chr1        30922   30923   G       T       FAM138A ./.     ./.     ./.     ./.
chr1        69269   69270   A       G       OR4F5   ./.     ./.     G/G     G/G
chr1        69427   69428   T       G       OR4F5   T/T     T/T     T/T     T/T
chr1        69510   69511   A       G       OR4F5   ./.     ./.     A/G     A/G
chr1        69760   69761   A       T       OR4F5   A/A     A/T     A/A     A/A
chr1        69870   69871   G       A       OR4F5   ./.     G/G     G/G     G/G

Let’s now get the genotype and the depth of aligned sequence observed for a sample so that we can assess the confidence in the genotype:

$ gemini query -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene,
                      gts.1094PC0005, \
                      gt_depths.1094PC0005 \
               from variants" test.snpEff.vcf.db

chr1    30547   30548   T       G       FAM138A ./.     -1
chr1    30859   30860   G       C       FAM138A G/G     7
chr1    30866   30869   CCT     C       FAM138A CCT/CCT 8
chr1    30894   30895   T       C       FAM138A T/C     8
chr1    30922   30923   G       T       FAM138A ./.     -1
chr1    69269   69270   A       G       OR4F5   ./.     -1
chr1    69427   69428   T       G       OR4F5   T/T     2
chr1    69510   69511   A       G       OR4F5   ./.     -1
chr1    69760   69761   A       T       OR4F5   A/A     1
chr1    69870   69871   G       A       OR4F5   ./.     -1

Selecting sample genotypes based on “wildcards”.

The above examples demonstrate how one can select individual sample genotype information by explicitly listing each column and sample that one wishes to see. Obviously, this can become tedious when a project involves hundreds or thousands of samples — if you wanted to see genotype information for the 345 of 1145 affected samples in your study, you would have to type each and every column.sample name out. Brutal.

The “*” wildcard

To get around this, one can bulk-select sample genotype information using “wildcards”. The column and the wildcard must each be surrounded with parentheses and separated by a period. The “*” is a shortcut (wildcard) meaning “all samples”.

Note

The syntax for SELECTing genotype columns using a wildcard is (COLUMN).(WILDCARD).

For example, a shortcut to reporting the genotype for all samples (in this case 4) in the study, one could do the following:

$ gemini query --header -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene, (gts).(*) \
                            from variants" extended_ped.db
chrom start end ref alt gene  gts.M10475  gts.M10478  gts.M10500  gts.M128215
chr10 1142207 1142208 T C WDR37 C/C C/C C/C C/C
chr10 48003991  48003992  C T ASAH2C  T/T C/T C/T C/C
chr10 52004314  52004315  T C ASAH2 ./. ./. C/C C/C
chr10 52497528  52497529  G C ASAH2B  ./. C/C C/C ./.
chr10 126678091 126678092 G A CTBP2 G/G G/G G/G G/A
chr10 135210790 135210791 T C MTG1.1  T/T C/C C/C T/T
chr10 135336655 135336656 G A SPRN  ./. A/A ./. A/A
chr10 135369531 135369532 T C SYCE1 T/T T/C T/C T/T
chr16 72057434  72057435  C T DHODH C/T C/C C/C C/C

Wildcards based on sample attributes

To report the genotypes for solely those samples that are affected (phenotype == 2) with the phenotype in question, one could do the following:

$ gemini query --header -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene, (gts).(phenotype==2) \
                            from variants" extended_ped.db
chrom start end ref alt gene  gts.M10478  gts.M10500
chr10 1142207 1142208 T C WDR37 C/C C/C
chr10 48003991  48003992  C T ASAH2C  C/T C/T
chr10 52004314  52004315  T C ASAH2 ./. C/C
chr10 52497528  52497529  G C ASAH2B  C/C C/C
chr10 126678091 126678092 G A CTBP2 G/G G/G
chr10 135210790 135210791 T C MTG1.1  C/C C/C
chr10 135336655 135336656 G A SPRN  A/A ./.
chr10 135369531 135369532 T C SYCE1 T/C T/C
chr16 72057434  72057435  C T DHODH C/C C/C

One can add multiple wildcard criteria as well:

$ gemini query --header -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene, (gts).(phenotype==1 and hair_color=='blue') \
                            from variants" extended_ped.db
chrom start end ref alt gene  gts.M128215
chr10 1142207 1142208 T C WDR37 C/C
chr10 48003991  48003992  C T ASAH2C  C/C
chr10 52004314  52004315  T C ASAH2 C/C
chr10 52497528  52497529  G C ASAH2B  ./.
chr10 126678091 126678092 G A CTBP2 G/A
chr10 135210790 135210791 T C MTG1.1  T/T
chr10 135336655 135336656 G A SPRN  A/A
chr10 135369531 135369532 T C SYCE1 T/T
chr16 72057434  72057435  C T DHODH C/C

--gt-filter Filtering on genotypes

Now, we often want to focus only on variants where a given sample has a specific genotype (e.g., looking for homozygous variants in family trios). Unfortunately, we cannot directly do this in the SQL query, but the gemini query tool has an option called –gt-filter that allows one to specify filters to apply to the returned rows. The rules followed in the –gt-filter option follow Python syntax.

Tip

As you will see from the examples below, appropriate use of the –gt-filter option will allow you to compose queries that return variants meeting inheritance patterns that are relevant to the disease model of interest in your study.

As an example, let’s only return rows where sample 1094PC0012 is heterozygous. In order to do this, we apply a filter to the gt_types columns for this individual:

$ gemini query -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene,
                      gts.1094PC0005, \
                      gts.1094PC0009, \
                      gts.1094PC0012, \
                      gts.1094PC0013 \
               from variants" \
               --gt-filter "gt_types.1094PC0012 == HET" \
               --header \
               test.snpEff.vcf.db

chrom   start   end     ref     alt     gene gts.1094PC0005     gts.1094PC0009  gts.1094PC0012  gts.1094PC0013
chr1    30866   30869   CCT     C       FAM138A CCT/CCT CCT/CCT CCT/C   CCT/CCT
chr1    69510   69511   A       G       OR4F5   ./.     ./.     A/G     A/G

Now let’s be a bit less restrictive and return variants where either sample 1094PC0012 is heterozygous or sample 1094PC0005 is homozygous for the reference allele:

$ gemini query -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene,
                      gts.1094PC0005, \
                      gts.1094PC0009, \
                      gts.1094PC0012, \
                      gts.1094PC0013 \
               from variants" \
               --gt-filter "gt_types.1094PC0012 == HET or \
               gt_types.1094PC0005 == HOM_REF" \
               --header \
               test.snpEff.vcf.db

chrom   start   end     ref     alt     gene gts.1094PC0005     gts.1094PC0009  gts.1094PC0012  gts.1094PC0013
chr1    30859   30860   G       C       FAM138A G/G     G/G     G/G     G/G
chr1    30866   30869   CCT     C       FAM138A CCT/CCT CCT/CCT CCT/C   CCT/CCT
chr1    69427   69428   T       G       OR4F5   T/T     T/T     T/T     T/T
chr1    69510   69511   A       G       OR4F5   ./.     ./.     A/G     A/G
chr1    69760   69761   A       T       OR4F5   A/A     A/T     A/A     A/A

Eh, I changed my mind, let’s restrict the above to those variants where sample 1094PC0012 must also be heterozygous:

$ gemini query -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene,
                      gts.1094PC0005, \
                      gts.1094PC0009, \
                      gts.1094PC0012, \
                      gts.1094PC0013 \
               from variants" \
               --gt-filter "(gt_types.1094PC0012 == HET or \
               gt_types.1094PC0005 == HOM_REF) \
               and \
               (gt_types.1094PC0013 == HET)" \
               --header \
               test.snpEff.vcf.db

 chrom  start   end     ref     alt     gene gts.1094PC0005     gts.1094PC0009  gts.1094PC0012  gts.1094PC0013

--gt-filter Wildcard filtering on genotype columns.

Many times, we want to be able to apply the same rule to multiple samples without having to enter the rule over and over again for each sample. For example, let’s imaging there are 100 samples in your study and you only want to report variants where every sample has an observed alignment depth of at least 20 reads. Traditionally, one would have enter each of the 100 samples from the command line as follows:

$ gemini query -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene from variants" \
                     --gt-filter "gt_depths.sample1 >= 20 and \
                                  gt_depths.sample2 >= 20 and \
                                  gt_depths.sample3 >= 20 and \
                                  ...
                                  gt_depths.sample100 >= 20" \
                     extended_ped.db

The basics.

Obviously, this is deeply painful. Thankfully, there an option allowing the use of “wildcards” to prevent this.

Note

The syntax of the wildcard --gt-filters is (COLUMN).(SAMPLE_WILDCARD).(SAMPLE_WILDCARD_RULE).(RULE_ENFORCEMENT).

For example, using wildcards, the above could be converted to:

$ gemini query -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene from variants" \
                     --gt-filter "(gt_depths).(*).(>=20).(all)" \
                     extended_ped.db

Obviously, this makes things much simpler.

The all operator

One can also apply wildcards that select samples based on the values in specific columns in the samples table. For example, let’s imagine we wanted to require that variants are returned only in cases where ALL the affected individuals in the study (i.e., the phenotype column in the samples table is equal to 2) have non-reference genotypes. We could do the following:

$ gemini query --header \
               -q "SELECT chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene, (gts).(phenotype==2) \
                   FROM variants" \
               --gt-filter "(gt_types).(phenotype==2).(!=HOM_REF).(all)" \
               extended_ped.db
chrom start end ref alt gene  gts.M10478  gts.M10500
chr10 1142207 1142208 T C WDR37 C/C C/C
chr10 48003991  48003992  C T ASAH2C  C/T C/T
chr10 52004314  52004315  T C ASAH2 ./. C/C
chr10 52497528  52497529  G C ASAH2B  C/C C/C
chr10 135210790 135210791 T C MTG1.1  C/C C/C
chr10 135336655 135336656 G A SPRN  A/A ./.
chr10 135369531 135369532 T C SYCE1 T/C T/C

Or perhaps we wanted to be more restrictive. We could also enforce that the affected individuals also had at least 20 aligned reads at such variant sites:

$ gemini query --header \
               -q "SELECT chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene, \
                          (gts).(phenotype==2), (gt_depths).(phenotype==2) \
                   FROM variants" \
               --gt-filter "(gt_types).(phenotype==2).(!=HOM_REF).(all) \
                            and \
                            (gt_depths).(phenotype==2).(>=20).(all)" \
               extended_ped.db
chrom start end ref alt gene  gts.M10478  gts.M10500  gt_depths.M10478  gt_depths.M10500
chr10 1142207 1142208 T C WDR37 C/C C/C 29  24
chr10 48003991  48003992  C T ASAH2C  C/T C/T 38  44
chr10 135369531 135369532 T C SYCE1 T/C T/C 32  21

The any operator

The examples provided thus far have deomnstrated how to enforce that ALL of the samples meeting specific criteria meet the same genotype column restrictions. However, clearly there are cases where one would want to be less restrictive. In order to accomondate such queries, there are three other enforcement operators allowed: any, none, and count.

For example, perhaps we want to relax the above query a bit and only require that at least one (i.e., any) of the affected samples has depth > 20:

$ gemini query --header \
               -q "SELECT chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene, \
                          (gts).(phenotype==2), (gt_depths).(phenotype==2) \
                   FROM variants" \
               --gt-filter "(gt_types).(phenotype==2).(!=HOM_REF).(all) \
                            and \
                            (gt_depths).(phenotype==2).(>=20).(any)" \
               extended_ped.db

The none operator

Or we enforce that none of the affected samples have depth less than 10:

$ gemini query --header \
               -q "SELECT chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene, \
                          (gts).(phenotype==2), (gt_depths).(phenotype==2) \
                   FROM variants" \
               --gt-filter "(gt_types).(phenotype==2).(!=HOM_REF).(all) \
                            and \
                            (gt_depths).(phenotype==2).(<10).(none)" \
               extended_ped.db

The count operator

Finally, we could enforce that at most 2 of all the samples in the study have depths < 10:

$ gemini query --header \
               -q "SELECT chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene, \
                          (gts).(phenotype==2), (gt_depths).(phenotype==2) \
                   FROM variants" \
               --gt-filter "(gt_types).(phenotype==2).(!=HOM_REF).(all) \
                            and \
                            (gt_depths).(phenotype==2).(<10).(count <= 2)" \
               extended_ped.db

Note

The count operator allows the following comparisons: >, >=, <, <=, ==, <>, and !=.

Example scenario.

One usage of the wildcard functionality is screening for variants that are present in affected individuals yet absent from unaffected individuals (this is obviously an idealized scenario).

$ gemini query --header \
               -q "SELECT chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene, (gts).(*) \
                   FROM variants" \
               --gt-filter "(gt_types).(phenotype==1).(==HOM_REF).(all) \
                            and \
                            (gt_depths).(phenotype==2).(==HOM_REF).(none)" \
               extended_ped.db

More complexity.

One can also combine wildcard filters with “basic” genotype filters to create more complex logic.

$ gemini query --header \
               -q "SELECT chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene, (gts).(*) \
                   FROM variants" \
               --gt-filter "((gt_types).(phenotype==1).(==HOM_REF).(all) \
                              and \
                             (gt_depths).(phenotype==2).(==HOM_REF).(none)) \
                            or gt.NA12878 == HET" \
               extended_ped.db

Other details.

The system is fairly flexible in that it allows one to wildcard-select samples based on custom columns that have been added to the samples table based upon a custom PED file. For example, let’s imaging our custom PED file had an extra column defining the hair color of each sample. We coukd use that to restrict interesting variants to those where samples with blue hair were heterozygous:

$ gemini query -q "SELECT chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene FROM variants" \
               --gt-filter "(gt_types).(hair_color='blue').(==HET).(all)" \
               extended_ped.db

Or possibly, you want to stratify based on sub-population:

$ gemini query -q "SELECT chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene FROM variants" \
               --gt-filter "(gt_types).(population='CEU').(==HET).(all) \
                             and \
                            (gt_types).(population='YRI').(==HOM_ALT).(any)" \
               extended_ped.db

One can also base the wildcard on multiple criteria (in this case, brown hair and affected):

$ gemini query -q "SELECT chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene FROM variants" \
               --gt-filter "(gt_types).(hair_color=='brown' and phenotype==2).(!= HET).(all)" \
               extended_ped.db

There is a special case when we want to select samples based on their genotypes. For example, to show only sites where HET samples have a genotype quality above 20.

$ gemini query -q "SELECT chrom, start, end, ref, alt, gene FROM variants \
               where gene == 'SCNN1D' limit 5" \
                --gt-filter "(gt_quals).(=HET).(<20).(all)" test/test.query.db

In this case, the 2nd value must be one of =HET, =HOM_REF or =HOM_ALT

Lastly, wildcards can, of course, be combined with non-wildcard criteria:

$ gemini query -q "SELECT chrom, start, end, gene FROM variants" \
               --gt-filter "(gt_types).(hair_color=='brown' and phenotype==2).(!= HET).(all) \
                             and \
                            gt_types.M128215 == HOM_REF" \
               extended_ped.db

Hopefully this gives you a sense of what you can do with the “wildcard” genotype filter functionality.

--show-samples Finding out which samples have a variant

While exploring your data you might hit on a set of interesting variants and want to know which of your samples have that variant in them. You can display the samples containing a variant with the –show-sample-variants flag:

$ gemini query --header --show-samples -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt \
                                from variants where is_lof=1 limit 5" test.query.db

chrom   start   end     ref     alt     variant_samples het_samples     hom_alt_samples
chr1    874815  874816  C       CT      1478PC0006B,1478PC0007B,1478PC0010,1478PC0013B,1478PC0022B,1478PC0023B,1478PC0025,1719PC0007,1719PC0009,1719PC0010,1719PC0022   1478PC0006B,1478PC0007B,1478PC0010,1478PC0013B,1478PC0022B,1478PC0023B,1719PC0007,1719PC0009,1719PC0010 1478PC0025,1719PC0022
chr1    1140811 1140813 TC      T       1478PC0011      1478PC0011
chr1    1219381 1219382 C       G       1719PC0012      1719PC0012
chr1    1221487 1221490 CAA     C       1478PC0004      1478PC0004

variant_samples is a list of all of the samples with a variant, het_samples is the subset of those heterozygous for the variant and hom_alt_samples is the subset homozygous for the variant.

--show-samples --format sampledetail Provide a flattened view of samples

If you’d like to be able to export variants plus associated sample metadata into a downstream tool like R or pandas for additional exploration, adding the --format sampledetail command flattens all found samples and attached metadata information:

$ gemini query --header --format sampledetail --show-samples \
   -q "select chrom, start, ref from variants where is_lof=1 limit 1" test.query.db

chrom       start   ref     family_id       name    paternal_id     maternal_id     sex     phenotype
chr1        30547   T       0       1478PC0016      0       0       -9      -9
chr1        30547   T       0       1719PC0007      0       0       -9      -9
chr1        30547   T       0       1719PC0009      0       0       -9      -9" > exp

The denormalized results contain a row for each sample associated with a variant, along with information from the sample table. This provides a way to join sample information with a variant query.

--show-families Finding out which families have a variant

This works exactly like --show-samples except lists all of the families with a variant instead of the individual samples.

--region Restrict a query to a specified region

If you are only interested in a specific region, you can restrict queries to that region using the --region tool.

$ gemini query --region chr1:30859-30900 -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt \
             from variants"  test1.snpeff.db
chr1 30859   30860   G       C

--sample-filter Restrict a query to specified samples

The --sample-filter option allows you to select samples that a variant must be in by doing a SQL query on the samples table. For example if you wanted to show the set of variants that appear in all samples with a phenotype status of 2, you could do that query with:

$ gemini query --sample-filter "phenotype=2" -q "select gts, gt_types from variants" test.family.db
T/T,T/T,T/C,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,C/C  0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,3       1_kid,3_kid     1_kid   3_kid
T/T,T/T,T/C,T/T,T/T,T/C,T/T,T/T,T/C  0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,1       1_kid,2_kid,3_kid       1_kid,2_kid,3_kid
T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/C  0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1       3_kid   3_kid

By default –sample-filter will show the variant if at least one sample contains the variant. You can change this behavior by using the --in option along with --sample-filter. --in all will return a variant if all samples matching the query have the variant. in none will return a variant if the variant does not appear in any of the matching samples. --in only will return a variant if the variant is only in the matching samples and not in any of the non-matching samples. --in only all will show all of the variant which are in all of the matching samples and not in any of the non-matching samples.

The --family-wise flag applies the --sample-filter and --in behavior on a family-wise basis. For example to show all variants that are only in samples with a phenotype status of 2 in at least one family:

$ gemini query --family-wise --in only all --sample-filter "phenotype=2" -q "select gts, gt_types from variants" test.family.db
T/T,T/T,T/C,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,C/C  0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,3       1_kid,3_kid     1_kid   3_kid
T/T,T/T,T/C,T/T,T/T,T/C,T/T,T/T,T/C  0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,1       1_kid,2_kid,3_kid       1_kid,2_kid,3_kid
T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/T,T/C  0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1       3_kid   3_kid

You can also specify that a variant passes this filter in multiple families with the --min-kindreds option. So if you want to do the same query above, but restrict it such that at least three families have to pass the filter:

$ gemini query --min-kindreds 3 --family-wise --in only all --sample-filter "phenotype=2" -q "select gts, gt_types from variants" test.family.db
T/T,T/T,T/C,T/T,T/T,T/C,T/T,T/T,T/C  0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,1       1_kid,2_kid,3_kid       1_kid,2_kid,3_kid

If the PED file you loaded has extra fields in it, those will also work with the --sample-filter option. For example if you had a hair_color extended field, you could query on that as well as phenotype:

$ gemini query  --in only all --sample-filter "phenotype=1 and hair_color='blue'" -q "select gts, gt_types from variants" extended_ped.db
G/G,G/G,G/G,G/A      0,0,0,1 M128215 M128215

--sample-delim Changing the sample list delimiter

One can modify the default comma delimiter used by the --show-samples option through the use of the --sample-delim option. For example, to use a semi-colon instead of a comma, one would do the following:

  $ gemini query --header --show-samples --sample-delim ";" \
                 -q "select chrom, start, end, ref, alt \
                     from variants where is_lof=1 limit 5" test.query.db

chrom start end ref alt variant_samples het_samples hom_alt_samples
chr1  874815  874816  C CT  1478PC0006B;1478PC0007B;1478PC0010,1478PC0013B;1478PC0022B;1478PC0023B;1478PC0025;1719PC0007;1719PC0009;1719PC0010;1719PC0022 1478PC0006B;1478PC0007B;1478PC0010;1478PC0013B;1478PC0022B;1478PC0023B;1719PC0007;1719PC0009;1719PC0010 1478PC0025;1719PC0022
chr1  1140811 1140813 TC  T 1478PC0011  1478PC0011
chr1  1219381 1219382 C G 1719PC0012  1719PC0012
chr1  1221487 1221490 CAA C 1478PC0004  1478PC0004

--format Reporting query output in an alternate format.

The results of GEMINI queries can automatically be formatted for use with other programs using the –format command. Supported alternative formats are JSON and TPED (Transposed PED) format.

Reporting query output in JSON format may enable HTML/Javascript apps to query GEMINI and retrieve the output in a format that is amenable to web development protocols.

Here is a basic query:

$ gemini query -q "select chrom, start, end from variants" my.db | head
chr1  10067 10069
chr1  10230 10231
chr1  12782 12783
chr1  13109 13110
chr1  13115 13116
chr1  13117 13118
chr1  13272 13273
chr1  13301 13302
chr1  13416 13417
chr1  13417 13418

To report in JSON format, use the --format json option. For example:

$ gemini query --format json -q "select chrom, start, end from variants" my.db | head
{"chrom": "chr1", "start": 10067, "end": 10069}
{"chrom": "chr1", "start": 10230, "end": 10231}
{"chrom": "chr1", "start": 12782, "end": 12783}
{"chrom": "chr1", "start": 13109, "end": 13110}
{"chrom": "chr1", "start": 13115, "end": 13116}
{"chrom": "chr1", "start": 13117, "end": 13118}
{"chrom": "chr1", "start": 13272, "end": 13273}
{"chrom": "chr1", "start": 13301, "end": 13302}
{"chrom": "chr1", "start": 13416, "end": 13417}
{"chrom": "chr1", "start": 13417, "end": 13418}

If you would to use tools such as PLINK that use the PED format, you can dump out a set of variants matching any query in TPED (Transposed PED) format by adding the --tped flag to your query:

$ gemini query --format tped -q "select * from variants where chrom=10" test4.snpeff.db
10 rs10794716 0 1142207 C/C C/C C/C C/C
10 rs142685947 0 48003991 T/T C/T C/T C/C
10 rs2842123 0 52004314 ./. ./. C/C C/C
10 rs4935178 0 52497528 ./. C/C C/C ./.
16 rs201947120 0 72057434 C/T C/C C/C C/C
10 rs73373169 0 126678091 G/G G/G G/G G/A
10 rs2265637 0 135210790 T/T C/C C/C T/T
10 rs6537611 0 135336655 ./. A/A ./. A/A
10 rs3747881 0 135369531 T/T T/C T/C T/T

You can pass –header to get a header to see which samples have which variant. To use the TPED format you also need to generate a corresponing TFAM file from your data as well, which you can get from the GEMINI dump tool:

$ gemini dump  --tfam test4.snpeff.db > obs
None    M10475  None    None    None    None
None    M10478  None    None    None    None
None    M10500  None    None    None    None
None    M128215 None    None    None    None

--carrier-summary-by-phenotype Summarize carrier status

For prioritizing variants sometimes it is useful to have summary counts of the carrier status for all samples with a variant stratified across a phenotype. --carrier-summary-by-phenotype takes a column in the samples table that you want to summarize the carrier status of and adds a set of counts of carrier/non-carrier status for each phenotype in the given column. For example, to get a summary of how a set of variants segregate with affected status:

$ gemini query --show-samples --carrier-summary-by-phenotype affected --header -q "select chrom, start, ref, alt, gt_types from variants" extended_ped_test.db
chrom   start   ref     alt     gt_types        variant_samples het_samples     hom_alt_samples unaffected_carrier      affected_carrier        unaffected_noncarrier   affected_noncarrier     unknown
chr10   1142207 T       C       3,3,3,3 M10475,M10478,M10500,M128215            M10475,M10478,M10500,M128215    2       2       0       0       0
chr10   48003991        C       T       3,1,1,0 M10475,M10478,M10500    M10478,M10500   M10475  1       2       1       0       0
chr10   52004314        T       C       2,2,3,3 M10500,M128215          M10500,M128215  1       1       0       0       2
chr10   52497528        G       C       2,3,3,2 M10478,M10500           M10478,M10500   0       2       0       0       2
chr16   72057434        C       T       1,0,0,0 M10475  M10475          1       0       1       2       0
chr10   126678091       G       A       0,0,0,1 M128215 M128215         1       0       1       2       0
chr10   135210790       T       C       0,3,3,0 M10478,M10500           M10478,M10500   0       2       2       0       0
chr10   135336655       G       A       2,3,2,3 M10478,M128215          M10478,M128215  1       1       0       0       2
chr10   135369531       T       C       0,1,1,0 M10478,M10500   M10478,M10500           0       2       2       0       0

Or if you have another phenotypic feature you are interested in summarizing, like hair color:

$ gemini query --show-samples --carrier-summary-by-phenotype hair_color --header -q "select chrom, start, ref, alt, gt_types from variants" extended_ped.db
chrom   start   ref     alt     gt_types        variant_samples het_samples     hom_alt_samples blue_carrier    brown_carrier   purple_carrier  blue_noncarrier brown_noncarrier        purple_noncarrier       unknown
chr10   1142207 T       C       3,3,3,3 M10475,M10478,M10500,M128215            M10475,M10478,M10500,M128215    1       2       1       0       0       0       0
chr10   48003991        C       T       3,1,1,0 M10475,M10478,M10500    M10478,M10500   M10475  0       2       1       1       0       0       0
chr10   52004314        T       C       2,2,3,3 M10500,M128215          M10500,M128215  1       0       1       0       0       0       2
chr10   52497528        G       C       2,3,3,2 M10478,M10500           M10478,M10500   0       1       1       0       0       0       2
chr16   72057434        C       T       1,0,0,0 M10475  M10475          0       1       0       1       1       1       0
chr10   126678091       G       A       0,0,0,1 M128215 M128215         1       0       0       0       2       1       0
chr10   135210790       T       C       0,3,3,0 M10478,M10500           M10478,M10500   0       1       1       1       1       0       0
chr10   135336655       G       A       2,3,2,3 M10478,M128215          M10478,M128215  1       1       0       0       0       0       2
chr10   135369531       T       C       0,1,1,0 M10478,M10500   M10478,M10500           0       1       1       1       1       0       0

Querying the gene tables

The gene tables viz. gene_detailed table and the gene_summary table have been built on version 73 of the ensembl genes. The column specifications are available at The GEMINI database schema. These tables contain gene specific information e.g. gene synonyms, RVIS percentile scores(Petrovski et.al 2013), strand specifications, cancer gene census etc. While the former is more detailed, the later lacks transcript wise information and summarizes some aspects of the former. For e.g. while the gene_detailed table lists all transcripts of a gene with their start and end co-ordinates, the gene_summary table reports only the minimum start and maximum end co-ordinates of the gene transcripts. The chrom, gene and the transcript columns of the gene tables may be used to join on the variants and the variant_impacts tables.

Using the gene_detailed & gene_summary tables

Query the gene_detailed table with a join on variants table:

E.g. Get additional transcript info for the most severe impact transcript e.g. transcript status, transcript start,end and the protein length

$ gemini query --header -q "select v.variant_id, v.gene, \
                   v.impact, g.transcript_status, g.transcript, \
                               g.transcript_start, g.transcript_end, g.protein_length, \
                               from variants v, gene_detailed g \

                               WHERE v.chrom = g.chrom AND \
                                             v.gene = g.gene AND \
                                             v.transcript = g.transcript AND \
                                             v.impact_severity='HIGH'" test.query.db

    variant_id      gene    impact  transcript_status       transcript      transcript_start        transcript_end  protein_length
    46      SAMD11  frame_shift     KNOWN   ENST00000342066 861118  879955  681
    578     TNFRSF18        frame_shift     PUTATIVE        ENST00000486728 1139224 1141060 169
    733     SCNN1D  stop_gain       NOVEL   ENST00000470022 1217305 1221548 138

Query the gene_detailed table with a join on the variant_impacts table:

E.g. Get the transcript status for all transcripts of the SCNN1D gene where impact severity is not ‘LOW’.

$ gemini query --header -q "select v.gene, g.transcript_status, g.transcript, \
               v.impact from variant_impacts v, gene_detailed g \

                               WHERE v.transcript = g.transcript AND \
                     v.gene = g.gene AND \
                                             v.gene = 'SCNN1D' \
                         v.impact_severity!='LOW'" test.query.db

    gene    transcript_status       transcript      impact
    SCNN1D  NOVEL   ENST00000470022 non_syn_coding
    SCNN1D  NOVEL   ENST00000470022 frame_shift
    SCNN1D  KNOWN   ENST00000325425 frame_shift
    SCNN1D  KNOWN   ENST00000379116 non_syn_coding
    SCNN1D  KNOWN   ENST00000338555 non_syn_coding
    SCNN1D  KNOWN   ENST00000400928 non_syn_coding

Query the gene_summary table with a join on the variants table:

E.g. Get the synonym/alternate names, RVIS percentile scores and the min-max start-end of transcripts for genes that have a severely affected transcript of a ‘HIGH’ order.

$ gemini query --header -q "select v.chrom, v.gene, g.transcript_min_start, \
                   g.transcript_max_end, g.synonym, g.rvis_pct, v.impact from \
                               variants v, gene_summary g \

                               WHERE v.chrom = g.chrom AND \
                     v.gene = g.gene AND \
                     v.impact_severity='HIGH'" test.query.db

    chrom   gene    transcript_min_start    transcript_max_end      synonym rvis_pct        impact
    chr1    SAMD11  860260  879955  MGC45873        None    frame_shift
    chr1    TNFRSF18        1138888 1142071 AITR,CD357,GITR None    frame_shift
    chr1    SCNN1D  1215816 1227409 ENaCdelta,dNaCh 96.77990092     stop_gain

Query the gene_summary table with a join on the variant_impacts table:

E.g. Get all variants of a gene, the affected transcripts and impacts, where a mammalian phenotype ID is available for the mouse phenotype.

$ gemini query --header -q "select v.variant_id, v.chrom, v.gene, i.impact, \
                   i.transcript, g.mam_phenotype_id from variants v, \
                               variant_impacts i, gene_summary g \

                               WHERE v.variant_id=i.variant_id \
                               i.gene=g.gene AND \
                               v.chrom=g.chrom AND \
                               g.mam_phenotype_id !='None'" test.query.db

    variant_id      chrom   gene    impact  transcript      mam_phenotype_id
    334     chr1    TNFRSF18        non_syn_coding  ENST00000328596 MP:0005397,MP:0005384,MP:0005387
    378     chr1    TNFRSF18        frame_shift     ENST00000486728 MP:0005397,MP:0005384,MP:0005387
    483     chr1    AGRN    synonymous_coding       ENST00000379370 MP:0005378,MP:0005386,MP:0005388,MP:0005367,MP:0005369,MP:0005371,MP:0003631,MP:0002873,MP:0010768
    484     chr1    AGRN    exon    ENST00000461111 MP:0005378,MP:0005386,MP:0005388,MP:0005367,MP:0005369,MP:0005371,MP:0003631,MP:0002873,MP:0010768
    478     chr1    AGRN    intron  ENST00000461111 MP:0005378,MP:0005386,MP:0005388,MP:0005367,MP:0005369,MP:0005371,MP:0003631,MP:0002873,MP:0010768
    479     chr1    AGRN    downstream      ENST00000492947 MP:0005378,MP:0005386,MP:0005388,MP:0005367,MP:0005369,MP:0005371,MP:0003631,MP:0002873,MP:0010768

Restrict analysis to transcripts with a valid CCDS_ID

Since the current available transcript sets are more than one (e.g. RefSeq, ENSEMBL and UCSC) we support information (e.g pathways tool) for the ENSEMBL transcripts but provide a mapping of these transcripts to the consensus set agreed upon by all the above three mentioned groups viz. transcripts having a valid CCDS_ID. Here we show, how we can return variants and their impacts for only these restricted set of transcripts using the gene_detailed table.

$ gemini query --header -q "select i.var_id, i.gene, i.impact, i.transcript, \
                g.transcript_status, ccds_id, g.rvis_pct from \
                                variant_impacts i, gene_detailed g where \
                                i.transcript=g.transcript and i.gene=g.gene and\
                                impact_severity='HIGH' and g.ccds_id!='None'" test.query.db

variant_id      gene    impact  transcript      transcript_status       ccds_id rvis_pct
2051    SAMD11  frame_shift     ENST00000342066 KNOWN   CCDS2   None
3639    CCNL2   splice_acceptor ENST00000408918 KNOWN   CCDS30558       53.98089172
3639    CCNL2   splice_acceptor ENST00000400809 KNOWN   CCDS30557       53.98089172
13221   SMIM1   frame_shift     ENST00000444870 NOVEL   CCDS57966       None
21881   NPHP4   splice_acceptor ENST00000378156 KNOWN   CCDS44052       81.78815758

What if I don’t see my gene in the database?

Most genes are popular by their common names while the representation of gene names in the GEMINI database is mostly HGNC. For e.g ARTEMIS would be DCLRE1C in the GEMINI database. As such one may miss out on variants if looking for specific genes by their common names. While, joining the main tables with the gene tables for synonym information would be useful (as shown in the previous examples), the gene tables may also serve as a quick look up for alternate names of a gene, which could then be looked up in the database.

$ gemini query -q "select synonym from gene_summary where \
                   gene='ARTEMIS'" test.query.db
A-SCID,FLJ11360,SNM1C,DCLRE1C,SCIDA

or,

$ gemini query -q "select gene from gene_summary where synonym \
                   like '%ARTEMIS%' and \
                   is_HGNC='1'" test.query.db
DCLRE1C

#looking up for DCLRE1C in the database
$ gemini query -q "select variant_id, chrom, start, end, impact \
                   from variants where \
                   gene='DCLRE1C'" test.query.db
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