PlasX is a machine learning classifier for identifying plasmid sequences based on genetic architecture.
This README includes a tutorial for predicting plasmids from any input set of contigs. It also includes instructions for reproducing the 226,194 predicted plasmid contigs from our study "The Genetic and Ecological Landscape of Plasmids in the Human Gut" by Michael Yu, Emily Fogarty, A. Murat Eren.
PlasX requires python >=3.7. We recommend installing PlasX in a new virtual environment using Anaconda, to make installing dependencies easier. PlasX requires Linux and at least 8Gb of system RAM. In the future, we will provide support for running PlasX on Mac OS and Windows.
# Create virtual environment named "plasx" (you can change the name to whatever you like)
conda create --name plasx
# Install dependencies (this might take a few minutes for Anaconda to figure out the right package versions).
# The flags `-c anaconda -c conda-forge -c bioconda --override-channels --strict-channel-priority` specifies where packages should be downloaded from.
conda install --name plasx -y -c anaconda -c conda-forge -c bioconda --override-channels --strict-channel-priority numpy pandas scipy scikit-learn numba python-blosc mmseqs2=10.6d92cAlternatively, create the environment and install dependencies in a single command
conda create --name plasx -y -c anaconda -c conda-forge -c bioconda --override-channels --strict-channel-priority numpy pandas scipy scikit-learn numba python-blosc mmseqs2=10.6d92cThen, activate the new environment
conda activate plasxFinally, download PlasX (e.g. with git clone) and then install it with pip
# Download the PlasX code
git clone https://github.com/michaelkyu/PlasX.git
# Change directory into the repository, and then install using pip
cd PlasX
pip install .PlasX can be run using the command line (make sure you've activated the correct virtual environment).
$ plasx -husage: plasx [-h] {setup,fit,search_de_novo_families,predict} ...
Runs a PlasX model on a set of sequences. A score is returned for each contig.
Plasmids have scores closer to 1, whereas chromosomes have scores closer to 0.
positional arguments:
{setup,fit,search_de_novo_families,predict}
setup Downloads a pretrained PlasX model
fit (Not implemented yet) Trains a new PlasX model
search_de_novo_families
Annotates genes to de novo families
predict Runs trained PlasX model on annotated sequences
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
(plasx) In this tutorial, we will identify plasmids using a PlasX model that was pretrained on a set of reference bacterial genomes and plasmid sequences from NCBI. We'll run this model on an example set of 40 contigs in test/test-contigs.fa, but you can repeat these steps with your own contigs. Running PlasX consists of three steps:
The test directory contains copies of the files that will be created by these steps. You can use these files to skip ahead in the tutorial or to check correctness
# Change into the directory where PlasX was downloaded (e.g. where `git clone` downloaded PlasX to).
cd /path/to/PlasX
# Change into the `test` subdirectory that contains test-contigs.fa
cd test
# Input and output filename will start with this prefix
PREFIX='test-contigs'
# The number of CPU cores that will be used to annotate genes. We recommend setting it to the number of CPUs available, to speed up the processing of many contigs
THREADS=4# We are going to run PlasX on a fasta file containing 40 sequences. The file looks like this.
head test-contigs.fa>AST0002_000000019451
ATCTGATCCATCACGTACAGTGGATCCCCACCGTCATTATAGACCGGCTCCTGCAAACTCATAGGCACCTGTATGGCGTCCAGCGCATAGACAAAGGAGGTTTTCACTGCCTTTTCCGGTGCGCCGCCATGCTCCAGCCAGGAGGAGTTATGATAGTATTCCAGCACATTGACGCTGTTGGAAAAGCACAGGGCAGCGGT...
>AST0002_000000028382
TTGAGTACCATACATTTTTACATCATTCTCAAACCTCAAATTCAAAAATGAAATGCCATCACCTGCACAAAACTAGGCACTCAAACTGTATACTTTAATAAATTTCACATCTATCTTTATCTATAATATACCGTTCTACTCCCTCCACACAAGCTTTCTCGCTATTTTCAATAAATAATCCTTTTATTTCTATATATTTT...
>AST0002_000000001053
TCTCTCACGAAACAGCTTATTTATAATATCATCCCTTCTTAAACTTGTCAATAGCTTTTTTTAAAGTTTTGGAACCTTTTTTATTGCTGAACAAGTTATTTGGGACTTTACTAGTTTATCAAGTTTAAGTAATAAAGTCAACAAATTCTTCTTTTTAAAAAACAAAAAGAAGATACTAGTAACCTTTTTCTAGAATTTTA...
...# Change into the Anaconda environment that contains anvio
# - This step assumes that you installed anvio into a separate Anaconda environment than PlasX. You may modify this step depending on how you installed anvio.
conda deactivate
conda activate anvio# Create an anvio contigs database from the fasta file
# - The `-L 0` parameter ensures that contigs remain intact and aren't split
anvi-gen-contigs-database -L 0 -T $THREADS --project-name $PREFIX -f $PREFIX.fa -o $PREFIX.db
# Export gene calls (including amino acid sequences) to text file
anvi-export-gene-calls --gene-caller prodigal -c $PREFIX.db -o $PREFIX-gene-calls.txt# You should see something like this
head $PREFIX-gene-calls.txtgene_callers_id contig start stop direction partial call_type source version aa_sequence
0 AST0002_000000019451 2 1001 r 1 1 prodigal v2.6.3 MKKKATYGNESISMLKGADRVRLRPAVIFGSDGLEGCEHAVFEILSNAIDEAREGHGKEILVTRYLDHSIQVEDFGRGCPVDWNPAEQRFNWELVFCELYAGGKYSNNEGENYEYSLGLNGLGACATQYASRYFDAVIRRDGKKYTLHFEKGENIGGLKTEKADRKQTGSCFHWMPDLDVFTDINIPAEYYADILKRQAVVNAGVTFRLRTEMADGSFQETDFCYENGILDYVKELTEGKAMTMPQFWEAERKGRDRADMADYKVKITAALCFSNSVNVLEYYHNSSWLEHGGAPEKAVKTSFVYALDAIQVPMSLQEPVYNDGGDPLYVMDQ
1 AST0002_000000019451 1152 1908 r 1 1 prodigal v2.6.3 ALAECLFDDEKNMVRIDMSEYMEKYSVSRLIGAPPGYVGYEEGGQLTEAVRRRPYSVILFDEVEKAHPDVFNVLLQVLDDGRITDSQGRTVDFKNTIIILTSNLGSQYLLDGIGPDGSITQEAKDQVNALLKKSFRPEFLNRLDEIVFYKPLTRDNITSIIDLQMKDLNRRLADKQLSCRLTPEAKHFIIDAAYDPLYGARPLRRYLQHTVETLIAKKILTGDMPMGSVLEIRVEDGELTVVVVMEATIVE
2 AST0002_000000028382 94 766 r 0 1 prodigal v2.6.3 MKLVHGDLSGEIINEQKECVEWIIESPDLFSKYVGELYRQFNKDEGKFVLSENNKEIDIAKYSEIIINPLSIEINNRKVLNKLYEELNKLSFNEVLYMKTLELTKLIQEYLLELEQETNYILEFNNEVEMSALFKAVDLKYEDSGEDFLERLVKYIKILVDLLSVKLFVFINARCFMNDEQIKKLCEEIKYIEIKGLFIENSEKACVEGVERYIIDKDRCEIY
3 AST0002_000000028382 762 1068 r 0 1 prodigal v2.6.3 MRVLVFFDLPVLTSENRRAYAKFRKFLLKNGFLMLQESVYCKLALNGSAVNAIVDSVHKNKPEEGLIQLLTVTEKQYAKMDIILGQVKSEVLDTDERLVIL
4 AST0002_000000028382 1072 1321 r 1 1 prodigal v2.6.3 FNLASDLMEPFRVLVDQEVYNMRLEQFEHEEKMILVNILNKEVQIDGKNQYVNNAIKIYCKSIFDALNEDDSALIRFYKIEL
5 AST0002_000000001053 197 596 r 0 1 prodigal v2.6.3 MIKIYTISSCTSCKKAKTWLNKHQLPYKEQNLGKEPLTKEEILTILSKTENGVESIVSKKNRYAKALNCDIDELSVSEVIDLIQENPRILKSPILIDDKRLQVGYKEDDIRAFLPRSIRNVENSQARMRAAL
6 AST0002_000000001053 772 1927 r 0 1 prodigal v2.6.3 MAKKTKKTEEITKKFGDERLKALDDALKNIEKDFGKGAVMRLGERAEQKVQVMSSGSLALDIALGAGGYPKGRIIEIYGPESSGKTTVALHAVAQTQKEGGIAAFIDAEHALDPAYAAALGVNIDELLLSQPDSGEQGLEIAGKLIDSGAVDLVVVDSVAALVPRAEIDGDIGDSHVGLQARMMSQAMRKLSASINKTKTIAIFINQLREKVGIMFGNPETTPGGRALKFYASVRLDVRGNTQIKGTGDKKDQNVGKETKIKVVKNKVAPPFKEAFVEIMYGEGISQTGELVKIASDIGIIQKAGAWFSYNGEKIGQGSENAKKYLADHPEIFAEIDHKVRVHYGLVELDEDDVVEDTQVEDTQVEDTSDELILDLDSTIEIEE
7 AST0002_000000001053 1962 3234 r 0 1 prodigal v2.6.3 MKAELIAVGTEILTGQITNTNAQFLSEKLAELGIDVYFHTAVGDNENRLLSVLDQSSKRSDLVILCGGLGPTEDDLTKQTLAKFLGKELIFDEEASKKLDSFFATRPKHTRTPNNERQAQIVEGAVPLQNLTGLAVGGIITVEGVTYVVLPGPPSELKPMVNQELIPALTENHTTLYSRVLRFFGVGESQLVTIIKDLIVNQTDPTIAPYAKVGEVILRLSTKASSQEEADRKLDVLEEQIRSTKTLDGKSLSDLIYGYGESNSLAYEVFYLLKKYGKTITAAESLTAGLFQASVADFPGASQVFKGGFVTYSMEEKAKMLDIPLSKLEEHGVVSHFTAEKMAEGARVKTDSDYGIALTGVAGPDALEGHQAGTVFIGIADRNQVRSIKVVIGGRSRSDVRYISTLYAFNLVRQALLQEDNSI
8 AST0002_000000001053 3708 3885 r 0 1 prodigal v2.6.3 MVNRCRWVPTDNKLYCDYHDKEWGKPIGDDEKLFELLCLESYQSGLSWLTVLKKTPGF# Download COGs (~2 min on fast network) and Pfam (~20 min)
# - The flags `--cog-version COG14` and `--pfam-version 32.0` directs anvio to download the 2014 version of the COG database and v32.0 of Pfam, which are used by PlasX. Without these flags, anvio will by default download the latest versions of COG (v. 2020) and Pfam (v35.0), which PlasX does not use.
# - The flags `--cog-data-dir COG2014` and `--pfam-data-dir Pfam_v32` directs anvio to store the COG and Pfam databases in new subfolders named `COG_2014` and `Pfam_v32`, respectively.
anvi-setup-ncbi-cogs --cog-version COG14 --cog-data-dir COG_2014 -T $THREADS
anvi-setup-pfams --pfam-version 32.0 --pfam-data-dir Pfam_v32# Annotate COGs
anvi-run-ncbi-cogs -T $THREADS --cog-version COG14 --cog-data-dir COG_2014 -c $PREFIX.db
# Annotate Pfams
anvi-run-pfams -T $THREADS --pfam-data-dir Pfam_v32 -c $PREFIX.db
# Export functions to text file
anvi-export-functions --annotation-sources COG14_FUNCTION,Pfam -c $PREFIX.db -o $PREFIX-cogs-and-pfams.txt# You should see something like this
head $PREFIX-cogs-and-pfams.txtgene_callers_id source accession function e_value
0 COG14_FUNCTION COG0187 DNA gyrase/topoisomerase IV, subunit B 4.4e-136
1 COG14_FUNCTION COG0542 ATP-dependent Clp protease ATP-binding subunit ClpA 1.7e-95
3 COG14_FUNCTION COG3512 CRISPR/Cas system-associated protein Cas2, endoribonuclease 2.1e-28
4 COG14_FUNCTION COG1518 CRISPR/Cas system-associated endonuclease Cas1 3.1e-30
5 COG14_FUNCTION COG1393 Arsenate reductase and related proteins, glutaredoxin family 1.9e-61
6 COG14_FUNCTION COG0468 RecA/RadA recombinase 4.4e-180
7 COG14_FUNCTION COG1058!!!COG1546 Predicted nucleotide-utilizing enzyme related to molybdopterin-biosynthesis enzyme MoeA!!!Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) deamidase PncC 7.8e-170
8 COG14_FUNCTION COG2818 3-methyladenine DNA glycosylase Tag 3.1e-21
9 COG14_FUNCTION COG0632 Holliday junction resolvasome RuvABC DNA-binding subunit 6.8e-84conda deactivate
conda activate plasx# By default, the model will be downloaded to the location that PlasX was installed. Thus, you only need to run this command once for your PlasX installation.
# - ~5 min download on fast network
plasx setup \
--de-novo-families 'https://zenodo.org/record/5819401/files/PlasX_mmseqs_profiles.tar.gz' \
--coefficients 'https://zenodo.org/record/5819401/files/PlasX_coefficients_and_gene_enrichments.txt.gz'Note that we have only tested the next command on Linux, and it might not run correctly on Mac OS and Windows machines. Most of PlasX's code is Python-based and should be capable of running on almost any operating system. However, this specific command depends on non-Python code from the mmseqs2 software package, version 10.6d92c, which may need to be installed and configured differently on non-Linux systems. In the future, we will provide support for running PlasX on Mac OS and Windows.
# ~1 hr if THREADS=4. ~5 min if THREADS=128.
# - For faster processing, set THREADS to the number of CPU cores available.
# - This command requires a high amount of RAM (at least ~60Gb). If your machine has low RAM, then you need to set the `--splits` flag to a high number.
# This will split the de novo families into chunks, reducing the max RAM usage. E.g. if you have only ~8Gb, we recommend setting `--splits` to 32 or higher.
plasx search_de_novo_families \
-g $PREFIX-gene-calls.txt \
-o $PREFIX-de-novo-families.txt \
--threads $THREADS \
--splits 32 \
--overwrite# You should see something like this
head $PREFIX-de-novo-families.txtgene_callers_id contig start stop direction rev_compd length e_value accession
1 AST0002_000000019451 1152 1908 r True 756 0.0 mmseqs_40_33078316
1 AST0002_000000019451 1152 1908 r True 756 0.0 mmseqs_30_43406241
1 AST0002_000000019451 1152 1908 r True 756 0.0 mmseqs_25_49900063
1 AST0002_000000019451 1152 1908 r True 756 0.0 mmseqs_20_50193611
2 AST0002_000000028382 94 766 r True 672 6.194e-19 mmseqs_30_33026007
2 AST0002_000000028382 94 766 r True 672 4.061e-32 mmseqs_20_18536381
2 AST0002_000000028382 94 766 r True 672 1e-45 mmseqs_5_34842522
3 AST0002_000000028382 762 1068 r True 306 9.561e-31 mmseqs_40_40392677
3 AST0002_000000028382 762 1068 r True 306 1.752e-36 mmseqs_30_46987655PlasX assigns a score to every contig. This score ranges from 0 (likely not plasmid) to 1 (likely plasmid). We recommend applying a threshold of at least >0.5 to identify plasmids. You can raise this threshold even higher (e.g. >0.9) to filter for high-confidence plasmids.
plasx predict \
-a $PREFIX-cogs-and-pfams.txt $PREFIX-de-novo-families.txt \
-g $PREFIX-gene-calls.txt \
-o $PREFIX-scores.txt \
--overwrite# The output should look like this. The first column are the contig names, and the second column is the PlasX score.
# - In this example, PlasX reports that AST0002_000000001053 is probably not a plasmid (score is close to 0), while AST0002_000000008287 is probably a plasmid (score is close to 1)
head $PREFIX-scores.txtcontig score
AST0002_000000001053 2.3737687782754214e-08
AST0002_000000001122 2.995346606467998e-07
AST0002_000000001459 6.333592291893041e-06
AST0002_000000001776 0.9592232672966521
AST0002_000000003048 0.5622421419516015
AST0002_000000006389 0.6089640039139832
AST0002_000000006967 0.2730847890122725
AST0002_000000007621 0.6630016070098446
AST0002_000000008287 0.9848824181163179In this study, we predicted 226,194 plasmid contigs. You can download the PlasX scores of these plasmids at https://zenodo.org/record/5819401/files/predicted_plasmids_summary.txt.gz.
wget https://zenodo.org/record/5819401/files/predicted_plasmids_summary.txt.gz
gunzip predicted_plasmids_summary.txt.gzYou can reproduce these scores by running PlasX on precomputed gene annotations at https://zenodo.org/record/5732447/files/predicted_plasmids_gene_annotations.txt.gz.
# Download and extract precomputed gene annotations of predicted plasmids
wget https://zenodo.org/record/5732447/files/predicted_plasmids_gene_annotations.txt.gz
gunzip predicted_plasmids_gene_annotations.txt.gz# Run PlasX to calculate scores for the predicted plasmids
plasx predict \
-a predicted_plasmids_gene_annotations.txt \
-o predicted_plasmids_scores.txt \
--overwrite# Scores are written to a file that looks like this
head predicted_plasmids_scores.txtcontig score
AST0002_000000000224 0.9713393458995763
AST0002_000000000565 0.9999998989973333
AST0002_000000000640 0.5220555371966891
AST0002_000000000659 0.9999999966474049
AST0002_000000000996 0.9932700514639006
AST0002_000000001523 0.5269207274589872
AST0002_000000001535 0.5845180870306678
AST0002_000000001737 0.5296216606001394
AST0002_000000001776 0.9726152909151958You can also reproduce the PlasX scores for all ~36,000,000 metagenomic contigs in our study (the predicted plasmids is a small subset of these contigs). You can do this from scratch by downloading the fasta files of all contigs at https://zenodo.org/record/5730607/files/metagenomes_contigs.tar.gz and then adapting the Tutorial with the appropriate file names. However, note that annotating genes will take a long time (~1 day using 256 CPU cores). To make things faster, you can skip the annotation step by downloading precomputed annotations at https://zenodo.org/record/5731658/files/metagenomes_gene_annotations.tar.gz, and then directly proceed to calculating PlasX scores.
# Download and extract gene annotations of all metagenomic contigs. NOTE: this is a very large file that will take a few hours to download and extract.
wget https://zenodo.org/record/5731658/files/metagenomes_gene_annotations.tar.gz
tar -zxf metagenomes_gene_annotations.tar.gz# Run PlasX to calculate scores for all contigs from metagenome AST0002 (this command can be modified for any other metagenome)
plasx predict \
-a AST0002_gene_annotations.txt \
-o AST0002-scores.txt \
--overwrite