[Bioperl-l] Bio::DB::GenBank and large number of requests

Smithies, Russell Russell.Smithies at agresearch.co.nz
Wed Jan 30 19:34:44 UTC 2008


Take a look at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Class/PowerTools/eutils/ebot/ebot.cgi
Ebot is an interactive tool that generates a Perl script that implements
an E-utility pipeline.
You can probably hack the resulting script to introduce the required
BioPerly bits.

Russell Smithies 

Bioinformatics Software Developer 
T +64 3 489 9085 
E  russell.smithies at agresearch.co.nz 

Invermay  Research Centre 
Puddle Alley, 
Mosgiel, 
New Zealand 
T  +64 3 489 3809   
F  +64 3 489 9174  
www.agresearch.co.nz

> -----Original Message-----
> From: bioperl-l-bounces at lists.open-bio.org
[mailto:bioperl-l-bounces at lists.open-
> bio.org] On Behalf Of Tristan Lefebure
> Sent: Thursday, 31 January 2008 3:56 a.m.
> To: Bioperl-l at lists.open-bio.org
> Subject: Re: [Bioperl-l] Bio::DB::GenBank and large number of requests
> 
> Thank you both!
> 
> Just in case it might be usefull for someone else, here are my
ramblings:
> 
> 1. I first tried to adapt my script and fetch 500 sequences at a time.
It works,
> except that ~40% of the time NCBI gives the following error and my
script crashed:
> 
> ------------- EXCEPTION: Bio::Root::Exception -------------
> MSG: WebDBSeqI Request Error:
> [...]
>     The proxy server received an invalid
>     response from an upstream server.
> [...]
> STACK: Error::throw
> STACK: Bio::Root::Root::throw
/usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8/Bio/Root/Root.pm:359
> STACK: Bio::DB::WebDBSeqI::_request
> /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8/Bio/DB/WebDBSeqI.pm:685
> STACK: Bio::DB::WebDBSeqI::get_seq_stream
> /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8/Bio/DB/WebDBSeqI.pm:472
> STACK: Bio::DB::NCBIHelper::get_Stream_by_acc
> /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8/Bio/DB/NCBIHelper.pm:361
> STACK: ./fetch_from_genbank.pl:68
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> 
> I tried to modify the script so that when the retrieval of a 500
sequence block
> crashes, it continues with the other blocks, but I was unsuccessfull.
It probably
> needs some better understanding of BioPerl errors...
> Here is the section of the script that was modified:
> #########
> my $n_seq = scalar @list;
> my @aborted;
> 
> for (my $i=1; $i<=$n_seq; $i += 500) {
> 	print "Fetching sequences $i to ", $i+499, ": ";
> 	my $start = $i -1;
> 	my $end = $i + 500 -1;
> 	my @red_list = @list[$start .. $end];
> 	my $gb = new Bio::DB::GenBank(	-retrievaltype => 'tempfile',
> 					-format => $dformat,
> 					-db => $db,
> 				);
> 
> 	my $seqio;
> 	unless(	$seqio = $gb->get_Stream_by_acc(\@red_list)) {
> 		print "Aborted, resubmit latter\n";
> 		push @aborted, @red_list;
> 		next;
> 	}
> 
> 	my $seqout = Bio::SeqIO->new( -file => ">$ARGV[1].$i",
> 					-format => $format,
> 				);
> 	while (my $seqo = $seqio->next_seq ) {
> # 		print $seqo->id, "\n";
> 		$seqout->write_seq($seqo);
> 	}
> 	print "Done\n";
> }
> 
> if (@aborted) {
> 	open OUT, ">aborted_fetching.AN";
> 	foreach (@aborted) { print OUT $_ };
> }
> ##########
> 
> 
> 2. So I moved to the second solution and tried batchentrez. I cut my
120,000 long
> AN list into 10,000 long pieces using split:
> split -l 10000 full_list.AN splitted_list_
> 
> and then submitted the 13 lists one by one. I must say that I don't
really like using
> a web-interface to fetch data, and here the most ennoying part is that
you end up
> with a regular Entrez/GenBank webpage: select your format, export to
file, chosse
> file name... and have to do it many times.
> It is too much prone to human and web-browser errors for my taste, but
it worked.
> Nevertheless there is some caveats:
> - some downloaded files were incomplete (~10%) and you have to restart
it
> - you can't submit several lists in the same time (otherwise the same
cookie will be
> used and you'll end up with several identical files)
> 
> -Tristan
> 
> On Tuesday 29 January 2008 13:44:16 you wrote:
> > Forgot about that one; it's definitely a better way to do it if you
> > have the GI/accessions.
> >
> > chris
> >
> > On Jan 29, 2008, at 12:32 PM, Alexander Kozik wrote:
> > > you don't need to use bioperl to accomplish this task, to download
> > > several thousand sequences based on accession ID list.
> > >
> > > NCBI batch Entrez can do that:
> > > http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/batchentrez
> > >
> > > just submit a large list of IDs, select database, and download.
> > >
> > > you can submit ~50,000 IDs in one file usually without problems.
> > > it may not return results if a list is larger than ~100,000 IDs
> > >
> > > --
> > > Alexander Kozik
> > > Bioinformatics Specialist
> > > Genome and Biomedical Sciences Facility
> > > 451 Health Sciences Drive
> > > Genome Center, 4-th floor, room 4302
> > > University of California
> > > Davis, CA 95616-8816
> > > Phone: (530) 754-9127
> > > email#1: akozik at atgc.org
> > > email#2: akozik at gmail.com
> > > web: http://www.atgc.org/
> > >
> > > Chris Fields wrote:
> > >> Yes, you can only retrieve ~500 sequences at a time using either
> > >> Bio::DB::GenBank.  Both Bio::DB::GenBank and Bio::DB::EUtilities
> > >> interact with NCBI's EUtilities (the former module returns raw
data
> > >> from the URL to be processed later, the latter module returns
> > >> Bio::Seq/Bio::SeqIO objects).
> > >>
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=coursework.section.large-d
> > >>atasets You can usually post more IDs using epost and fetch
sequence
> > >> referring to the WebEnv/key combo (batch posting).  I try to make
> > >> this a bit easier with EUtilities but it is woefully lacking in
> > >> documentation (my fault), but there is some code up on the wiki
> > >> which should work.
> > >> chris
> > >>
> > >> On Jan 29, 2008, at 11:19 AM, Tristan Lefebure wrote:
> > >>> Hello,
> > >>>
> > >>> I would like to download a large number of sequences from
GenBank
> > >>> (122,146 to be exact) following a list of accession numbers.
> > >>> I first investigated around Bio::DB::EUtilities, but got lost
and
> > >>> finally used Bio::DB::GenBank.
> > >>> My script works well for short request, but it gives the
following
> > >>> error with the long request:
> > >>>
> > >>> ------------- EXCEPTION: Bio::Root::Exception -------------
> > >>> MSG: WebDBSeqI Request Error:
> > >>> 500 short write
> > >>> Content-Type: text/plain
> > >>> Client-Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:22:46 GMT
> > >>> Client-Warning: Internal response
> > >>>
> > >>> 500 short write
> > >>>
> > >>> STACK: Error::throw
> > >>> STACK: Bio::Root::Root::throw
/usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8/Bio/Root/
> > >>> Root.pm:359
> > >>> STACK: Bio::DB::WebDBSeqI::_request /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8/
> > >>> Bio/DB/WebDBSeqI.pm:685
> > >>> STACK: Bio::DB::WebDBSeqI::get_seq_stream /usr/local/share/perl/
> > >>> 5.8.8/Bio/DB/WebDBSeqI.pm:472
> > >>> STACK: Bio::DB::NCBIHelper::get_Stream_by_acc /usr/local/share/
> > >>> perl/5.8.8/Bio/DB/NCBIHelper.pm:361
> > >>> STACK: ./fetch_from_genbank.pl:58
> > >>> ---------------------------------------------------------
> > >>>
> > >>> Does that mean that we can only fetch 500 sequences at a time?
> > >>> Should I split my list in 500 ids framents and submit them one
> > >>> after the other?
> > >>>
> > >>> Any suggestions very welcomed...
> > >>> Thanks,
> > >>> -Tristan
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> Here is the script:
> > >>>
> > >>> ##################################
> > >>> use strict;
> > >>> use warnings;
> > >>> use Bio::DB::GenBank;
> > >>> # use Bio::DB::EUtilities;
> > >>> use Bio::SeqIO;
> > >>> use Getopt::Long;
> > >>>
> > >>> # 2008-01-22 T Lefebure
> > >>> # I tried to use Bio::DB::EUtilities without much succes and get
> > >>> back to Bio::DB::GenBank.
> > >>> # The following procedure is not really good as the stream is
> > >>> first copied to a temporary file,
> > >>> # and than re-used by BioPerl to generate the final file.
> > >>>
> > >>> my $db = 'nucleotide';
> > >>> my $format = 'genbank';
> > >>> my $help= '';
> > >>> my $dformat = 'gb';
> > >>>
> > >>> GetOptions(
> > >>>    'help|?' => \$help,
> > >>>    'format=s'  => \$format,
> > >>>    'database=s'    => \$db,
> > >>> );
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> my $printhelp = "\nUsage: $0 [options] <list of ids or acc>
<output>
> > >>>
> > >>> Will download the corresponding data from GenBank. BioPerl is
> > >>> required.
> > >>>
> > >>> Options:
> > >>>    -h
> > >>>        print this help
> > >>>    -format: genbank|fasta|...
> > >>>        give output format (default=genbank)
> > >>>    -database: nucleotide|genome|protein|...
> > >>>        define the database to search in (default=nucleotide)
> > >>>
> > >>> The full description of the options can be find at
> > >>>
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query/static/efetchseq_help.html
> > >>> \n";
> > >>>
> > >>> if ($#ARGV<1) {
> > >>>    print $printhelp;
> > >>>    exit;
> > >>> }
> > >>>
> > >>> open LIST, $ARGV[0];
> > >>> my @list = <LIST>;
> > >>>
> > >>> if ($format eq 'fasta') { $dformat = 'fasta' }
> > >>>
> > >>> my $gb = new Bio::DB::GenBank(    -retrievaltype => 'tempfile',
> > >>>                -format => $dformat,
> > >>>                -db => $db,
> > >>>            );
> > >>> my $seqio = $gb->get_Stream_by_acc(\@list);
> > >>>
> > >>> my $seqout = Bio::SeqIO->new( -file => ">$ARGV[1]",
> > >>>                -format => $format,
> > >>>            );
> > >>> while (my $seqo = $seqio->next_seq ) {
> > >>>    print $seqo->id, "\n";
> > >>>    $seqout->write_seq($seqo);
> > >>> }
> > >>> _______________________________________________
> > >>> Bioperl-l mailing list
> > >>> Bioperl-l at lists.open-bio.org
> > >>> http://lists.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/bioperl-l
> > >>
> > >> Christopher Fields
> > >> Postdoctoral Researcher
> > >> Lab of Dr. Robert Switzer
> > >> Dept of Biochemistry
> > >> University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> Bioperl-l mailing list
> > >> Bioperl-l at lists.open-bio.org
> > >> http://lists.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/bioperl-l
> >
> > Christopher Fields
> > Postdoctoral Researcher
> > Lab of Dr. Robert Switzer
> > Dept of Biochemistry
> > University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
> 
> 
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