FCP

The fragment classification package (FCP) provides the following classifiers for assigning a taxonomic attribution to metagenomic fragments:

• Naive Bayes (NB): a composition-based, rank-specific classifier
• BLASTN: a homology-based, rank-specific classifier
• NB-BL: a hybrid, rank-specific classifier combining NB and BLASTN
• Epsilon-NB: a composition-based, rank-flexible classifier
• Lowest common ancestor (LCA): a homology-based, rank-flexible classifier
• LCA + epsilon-NB: a hybrid, rank-flexible classifier combining LCA and epsilon-NB

License

This software is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

Mailing list

• Join our mailing list to keep informed about the FCP.

Obtaining the Software

The FCP is available as a gzipped tarball for OSX and Linux users, and a zip file for Microsoft Windows users:

• Fragment classification package v1.0.2 (gzipped tarball)
• Fragment classification package v1.0.2 (zip file)
• Older versions

After downloading, uncompress the file and follow the installation instruction in the README file. Under OSX or Linux, the gzipped tarball can be uncompressed by typing tar zxvf FCP_1_0_2.tar.gz at the command prompt. Under Windows 7, the zip file can be uncompressed by right-clicking on the file and selecting 'Extract all...' from the popup menu. The FCP has been tested under OS X Snow Leopard, Linux, and Windows 7. To install the FCP under OS X, gcc must be installed which is available as part of the Mac Developer Tools.

Version History

• June 2, 2011: improved robustness of NB_install.py script and removed need for temporary directories when running nb-classify.
• Apr. 28, 2011: revision to NB_install.py to account for genomes without NCBI taxonomy information.
• Jan. 4, 2011: initial software release.

Contact Information

The FCP is in active development and we are interested in discussing all potential applications of this software. We encourage you to send us suggestions for new features. Suggestions, comments, and bug reports can be sent to Rob Beiko (beiko [at] cs.dal.ca). If reporting a bug, please provide as much information as possible and a simplified version of the data set which causes the bug. This will allow us to quickly resolve the issue.

Citing the FCP

If you find this software helpful in your research, please cite:

• Parks, D.H., MacDonald, N.J., and Beiko, R.G. (2010). Classifying short genomic fragments from novel lineages using composition and homology. (Submitted to BMC Bioinformatics, April 2011)

Funding

The development of this software has been supported by several organizations:

• Killam Trusts
• Genome Atlantic
• The Dalhousie Centre for Comparative Genomics and Evolutionary Bioinformatics, and the Tula Foundation
• The Dalhousie Faculty of Computer Science