hgtseq: a standard pipeline to study horizontal gene transfer

Abstract

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is well described in prokaryotes, it plays a crucial role in evolution, and has functional consequences in insects and plants: less is known about HGT in Humans. Studies have reported bacterial integrations in cancer patients, and microbial sequences have been detected in data from well-known Human sequencing projects. Few of the existing tools to investigate HGT are highly automated. Thanks to the adoption of Nextflow for life sciences work-flows, and the standards and best practices curated by communities such as nf-core, fully automated, portable, and scalable pipelines can now be developed. Here we present nf-core/hgtseq, to facilitate the analysis of HGT from sequencing data in different organisms. We showcase its performance by analysing six exome datasets from five mammals. Hgtseq can be run seamlessly in any computing environment and accepts data generated by existing exome and whole-genome sequencing projects: this will enable researchers to expand their analyses into this area. Fundamental questions are still open, about the mechanisms and the extent or the role of horizontal gene transfer: by releasing hgtseq we provide a standardised tool which will enable a systematic investigation of this phenomenon, thus paving the way for a better understanding of HGT.