GTF2TranscriptDB.R

GTF2TranscriptDB <- function(gtf.file, out.file = NULL, verbose = TRUE)
{
    require(rtracklayer)
    require(GenomicRanges)
    require(GenomicFeatures)

    min.info <- c("gene_id", "transcript_id", "exon_number")

    if (verbose) message("Importing ", gtf.file)
    gtf <- import.gff(gtf.file, asRangedData = FALSE)

    #parse the per exon attributes
    if (verbose) message("Parsing gene/transcript/exon ids.")
    exon.info <- strsplit(gsub("\"|;", "", values(gtf)$group), split=" ")
    exon.info <- lapply(exon.info, function(x) {
        data <- x[seq(2, length(x), 2)]
        names(data) <- x[seq(1, length(x), 2)]
        data
    })

    attribs <- names(exon.info[[1]])
    if (!all(min.info %in% attribs)) stop("Not all required attributes are in this GTF file.")
    exon.info <- do.call(data.frame, c(lapply(attribs, function(x)
                                                       sapply(exon.info, "[", x)),
                                              stringsAsFactors = FALSE))
    colnames(exon.info) <- attribs

    values(gtf) <- exon.info

    if (verbose) message("Creating tables.")
    #make transcripts table
    exons.by.tx <- split(gtf, values(gtf)$transcript_id)
    transcripts <- data.frame(
        tx_id = 1:length(exons.by.tx),
        tx_name = names(exons.by.tx),
        tx_chrom = as.character(seqnames(unlist(exons.by.tx))[start(exons.by.tx@partitioning)]),
        tx_strand = as.character(strand(unlist(exons.by.tx))[start(exons.by.tx@partitioning)]),
        tx_start = IRanges::sapply(start(ranges(exons.by.tx)), min),
        tx_end = IRanges::sapply(end(ranges(exons.by.tx)), max),
        stringsAsFactors = FALSE)

    #make exons table
    exons.ord <- unlist(exons.by.tx)
    splicings <- data.frame(
        tx_id = rep(1:length(exons.by.tx), elementLengths(exons.by.tx)),
        exon_rank = as.integer(values(exons.ord)$exon_number),
        exon_chrom = as.character(seqnames(exons.ord)),
        exon_strand = as.character(strand(exons.ord)),
        exon_start = start(exons.ord),
        exon_end = end(exons.ord),
        stringsAsFactors = FALSE)

    #make genes table
    gene.txs <- tapply(values(gtf)$transcript_id, values(gtf)$gene_id, unique)
    genes <- data.frame(
        tx_name = unlist(gene.txs),
        gene_id = rep(names(gene.txs), sapply(gene.txs, length)),
        stringsAsFactors = FALSE)

    #create the db
    if (verbose) message("Creating TranscriptDb.")
    gtf.db <- makeTranscriptDb(transcripts, splicings, genes)

    if(!is.null(out.file))
    {
        if (verbose) message("Writing database to file.")
        saveFeatures(gtf.db, out.file)
    }
    gtf.db
}