
                               primersearch 



Function

   Search DNA sequences for matches with primer pairs

Description

   primersearch reads in primer pairs from an input file and searches
   them against DNA sequence(s) specified by the user. Each of the
   primers in a pair is searched against the sequence and potential
   amplimers are reported. The output file is in the format of Whitehead
   primer3_core program. The user can specify a maximum percent mismatch
   level; for example, 10% mismatch on a primer of length 20bp means that
   the program will classify a primer as matching a sequence if 18 of the
   20 base pairs matches. It will only report matches if both primers in
   the pair have a match in opposite orientations.

Algorithm

   Each primer pair is specified in the input file by a name, followed by
   two primer sequences, primerA and primerB. The program first compares
   primerA to the forward strand and if it matches, primerB is compared
   to the reverse strand. The approach is then reversed, with the primerB
   being compared to the forward strand and primerA to the reverse. In
   this way all possible amplimers are reported.

Usage

   Here is a sample session with primersearch


% primersearch tembl:z52466 
Search DNA sequences for matches with primer pairs
Primer pairs file: primers
Allowed percent mismatch [0]: 
Whitehead primer3_core program output file [z52466.primersearch]: 

   Go to the input files for this example
   Go to the output files for this example

   Example 2

   Here we run the same example but allowing 20% mismatch between the
   primers and the sequence:


% primersearch tembl:z52466 
Search DNA sequences for matches with primer pairs
Primer pairs file: primers
Allowed percent mismatch [0]: 20
Whitehead primer3_core program output file [z52466.primersearch]: 

   Go to the output files for this example

Command line arguments

   Standard (Mandatory) qualifiers:
  [-seqall]            seqall     Nucleotide sequence(s) filename and optional
                                  format, or reference (input USA)
  [-infile]            infile     Primer pairs file
  [-mismatchpercent]   integer    [0] Allowed percent mismatch (Any integer
                                  value)
  [-outfile]           outfile    [*.primersearch] Whitehead primer3_core
                                  program output file

   Additional (Optional) qualifiers: (none)
   Advanced (Unprompted) qualifiers: (none)
   Associated qualifiers:

   "-seqall" associated qualifiers
   -sbegin1            integer    Start of each sequence to be used
   -send1              integer    End of each sequence to be used
   -sreverse1          boolean    Reverse (if DNA)
   -sask1              boolean    Ask for begin/end/reverse
   -snucleotide1       boolean    Sequence is nucleotide
   -sprotein1          boolean    Sequence is protein
   -slower1            boolean    Make lower case
   -supper1            boolean    Make upper case
   -sformat1           string     Input sequence format
   -sdbname1           string     Database name
   -sid1               string     Entryname
   -ufo1               string     UFO features
   -fformat1           string     Features format
   -fopenfile1         string     Features file name

   "-outfile" associated qualifiers
   -odirectory4        string     Output directory

   General qualifiers:
   -auto               boolean    Turn off prompts
   -stdout             boolean    Write first file to standard output
   -filter             boolean    Read first file from standard input, write
                                  first file to standard output
   -options            boolean    Prompt for standard and additional values
   -debug              boolean    Write debug output to program.dbg
   -verbose            boolean    Report some/full command line options
   -help               boolean    Report command line options. More
                                  information on associated and general
                                  qualifiers can be found with -help -verbose
   -warning            boolean    Report warnings
   -error              boolean    Report errors
   -fatal              boolean    Report fatal errors
   -die                boolean    Report dying program messages

Input file format

   primersearch reads in any nucleic acid sequence USAs.

  Input files for usage example

   'tembl:z52466' is a sequence entry in the example nucleic acid
   database 'tembl'

  File: primers

# This is my primer file
D1S243  cacacaggctcacatgcc      gctccagcgtcatggact
D1S468 aattaaccgttttggtcct     gcgacacacacttccc
D1S2845 ccaaagggtgcttctc        gtggcattccaacctc
D1S1608 gatggcttttggggactatt    cactgagccaagtgacacag
D1S2893 aaaacatcaactctcccctg    ctcaaaccccaataagcctt
D1S2660 cacacatgcacatgcac       agtgacaccagcaggg

  Database entry: tembl:z52466

ID   Z52466; SV 1; linear; genomic DNA; STS; HUM; 389 BP.
XX
AC   Z52466;
XX
DT   18-MAR-1996 (Rel. 47, Created)
DT   09-SEP-2004 (Rel. 81, Last updated, Version 4)
XX
DE   H.sapiens (D1S2660) DNA segment containing (CA) repeat; clone AFMa203yc1;
DE   single read.
XX
KW   CA repeat; dinucleotide repeat; GT repeat; microsatellite DNA;
KW   microsatellite marker; repeat polymorphism; STS.
XX
OS   Homo sapiens (human)
OC   Eukaryota; Metazoa; Chordata; Craniata; Vertebrata; Euteleostomi; Mammalia
;
OC   Eutheria; Euarchontoglires; Primates; Haplorrhini; Catarrhini; Hominidae;
OC   Homo.
XX
RN   [1]
RP   1-389
RA   Weissenbach J.;
RT   ;
RL   Submitted (01-SEP-1995) to the EMBL/GenBank/DDBJ databases.
RL   Genethon, B.P. 60, 91002 Evry Cedex France. E-mail:
RL   Jean.Weissenbach@genethon.fr
XX
RN   [2]
RP   1-389
RX   DOI; 10.1038/380152a0.
RX   PUBMED; 8600387.
RA   Dib C., Faure S., Fizames C., Samson D., Drouot N., Vignal A.,
RA   Millasseau P., Marc S., Hazan J., Seboun E., Lathrop M., Gyapay G.,
RA   Morissette J., Weissenbach J.;
RT   "A comprehensive genetic map of the human genome based on 5,264
RT   microsatellites";
RL   Nature 380(6570):152-154(1996).
XX
DR   GDB; 606855.
XX
CC   full automatic;
XX
FH   Key             Location/Qualifiers
FH
FT   source          1..389
FT                   /organism="Homo sapiens"
FT                   /chromosome="1"
FT                   /mol_type="genomic DNA"
FT                   /clone_lib="genomic DNA"
FT                   /cell_line="CEPH 134702"
FT                   /note="cloning vector is M13mp18"
FT                   /db_xref="taxon:9606"
XX
SQ   Sequence 389 BP; 118 A; 124 C; 86 G; 57 T; 4 other;
     agctgtgtgc acacaacatg anggggcaca catgcacatg cacacatgcc cacatgcata        6
0
     tgcacacaca cacacacaca cacacacaca ttcatgccca agcacgccca ccctcatgtc       12
0
     tcaccatgtg cacataacac acagtcacat ataccctggc acacatgccc acatgcagac       18
0
     acgaaacaca ggcccacgnt tncatgcaca caggtatggg cacacatacc atgcacacat       24
0
     aangacaaat accaggccag acatgatttg cccctgctgg tgtcactgtt aagtgtgaca       30
0
     gacaagcaga ggacacacac ccacctggga cgcggggctt caggagagag gcagacctaa       36
0
     tagggcccgg attcggggct ggggaggct                                         38
9
//

   The input primer file has the following format:

   Comment lines start with a '#'
   Lines with primer information have three fields separated by spaces or
   TAB characters. The columns contain:
    1. The name of the primer pair - this is reported in the output.
    2. The sequence of the first primer.
    3. The sequence of the second primer.

   Empty files will cause primersearch to note that no primers have been
   found, and to exit.

Output file format

  Output files for usage example

  File: z52466.primersearch


Primer name D1S243

Primer name D1S468

Primer name D1S2845

Primer name D1S1608

Primer name D1S2893

Primer name D1S2660
Amplimer 1
        Sequence: Z52466 Z52466
        H.sapiens (D1S2660) DNA segment containing (CA) repeat; clone AFMa203yc
1; single read.
        CACACATGCACATGCAC hits forward strand at 27 with 0 mismatches
        AGTGACACCAGCAGGG hits reverse strand at [103] with 0 mismatches
        Amplimer length: 261 bp

  Output files for usage example 2

  File: z52466.primersearch


Primer name D1S243

Primer name D1S468

Primer name D1S2845

Primer name D1S1608

Primer name D1S2893

Primer name D1S2660
Amplimer 1
        Sequence: Z52466 Z52466
        H.sapiens (D1S2660) DNA segment containing (CA) repeat; clone AFMa203yc
1; single read.
        CACACATGCACATGCAC hits forward strand at 49 with 2 mismatches
        AGTGACACCAGCAGGG hits reverse strand at [103] with 0 mismatches
        Amplimer length: 239 bp
Amplimer 2
        Sequence: Z52466 Z52466
        H.sapiens (D1S2660) DNA segment containing (CA) repeat; clone AFMa203yc
1; single read.
        CACACATGCACATGCAC hits forward strand at 27 with 0 mismatches
        AGTGACACCAGCAGGG hits reverse strand at [103] with 0 mismatches
        Amplimer length: 261 bp

Data files

   None.

Notes

   Every potential amplimer will be reported; if one primer matches the
   forward strand twice and the other matches the reverse strand only
   once, two potential amplimers are reported. If the reverse primer
   matches twice, four potential amplimers are reported.

References

   None.

Warnings

   This program is processor-intensive. You should probably not use it,
   for example, to search the whole of EMBL or even the human section of
   EMBL. It will take longer with more primer pairs and if mismatches are
   allowed.

Diagnostic Error Messages

   "No suitable primers found - exiting" means that either the primers
   file was empty or there were no compilable primer pairs contained in
   it.

Exit status

   It always exits with status 0

Known bugs

   None.

See also

   Program name                         Description
   eprimer3     Picks PCR primers and hybridization oligos
   stssearch    Search a DNA database for matches with a set of STS primers

   stssearch does something similar, but doesn't allow you to find
   mismatches and will report any match in any orientation and doesn't
   require you to have both primers matching.

Author(s)

   Val Curwen (vac © sanger.ac.uk)
   Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge,
   CB10 1SA, UK.

History

   Written Aug 2000 - Val Curwen

Target users

   This program is intended to be used by everyone and everything, from
   naive users to embedded scripts.

Comments

   None
