SEAL db is a Python project that provides a simple, efficient, and lightweight database for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data. SEAL db is built with the Flask framework and uses PostgreSQL as the backend database. It includes a web interface that allows users to upload and query NGS data.

Please report any issue here

To install SEAL db, first clone the repository from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/mobidic/seal.git

SEAL db requires several dependencies to be installed, which can be done either with Conda or manually.

To install dependencies with Conda, first install Conda if it is not already installed. Conda installation instructions can be found (here)

After installing Conda, create a new environment using the environment.yml file provided with SEAL db:

conda env create -f environment.yml

If you have install all dependencies from conda you need to activate your environment by launching this command: conda activate seal

After installing dependencies, you need to install VEP (Variant Effect Predictor), which is used by SEAL db to annotate variants. The installation instructions for VEP can be found here.

For conda environment:

vep_install -a cf -s homo_sapiens -y GRCh37 -c /output/path/to/GRCh37/vep --CONVERT

After installing VEP, you need to install several VEP plugins that are used by SEAL db:

• dbNSFP
• MaxEntScan
• SpliceAI
• dbscSNV
• GnomAD

The installation instructions for VEP plugins can be found (here).

A more complete guide will be written soon

After installing dependencies and VEP, you need to configure the app by editing two files:

• seal/static/vep.config.json
• seal/config.yaml

In seal/static/vep.config.json, replace the following variables with the appropriate paths:

• {dir_vep} => /path/to/vep
• {dir_vep_plugins} => /path/to/vep/plugins
• {GnomAD_vcf} => /path/to/gnomad.vcf
• {fasta} => /path/to/genome.fa.gz

In seal/config.yaml, create your secret app key and edit other settings as needed.

If you install all dependencies with conda make sure to activate the environment :

conda activate seal

comment line on seal/__init__.py (see #26)

# from seal import routes
# from seal import schedulers
# from seal import admin

To initialise the database, start the database server and run the following commands:

initdb -D ${PWD}/seal/seal.db
pg_ctl -D ${PWD}/seal/seal.db -l ${PWD}/seal/seal.db.log start
psql postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE seal;"
python insertdb.py -p password

uncomment line on seal/__init__.py (see #26)

from seal import routes
from seal import schedulers
from seal import admin

flask --app seal --debug db init
flask --app seal --debug db migrate -m "Init DataBase"

The database will be intialise with an admin user :

• username : admin
• password : password

Optionally, you can also add gene regions and OMIM data to the database.

wget -qO- http://hgdownload.cse.ucsc.edu/goldenpath/hg19/database/ncbiRefSeq.txt.gz   | gunzip -c - | awk -v OFS="\t" '{ if (!match($13, /.*-[0-9]+/)) { print $3, $5-2000, $6+2000, $13; } }' -  | sort -u > ncbiRefSeq.hg19.sorted.bed
python insert_genes.py

wget -qO- https://data.omim.org/downloads/{{YOUR API KEY}}/genemap2.txt
python insert_OMIM.py

Finally, to launch the app, run the following command:

flask --app seal --debug run

Here are some useful Tips & Tricks working with SEAL:

• Update database

flask --app seal --debug db migrate -m "message"
flask --app seal --debug db upgrade

• Start/Stop the datatabase server

pg_ctl -D ${PWD}/seal/seal.db -l ${PWD}/seal/seal.db.log start
pg_ctl -D ${PWD}/seal/seal.db -l ${PWD}/seal/seal.db.log stop

• Dump/Restore the database

pg_dump -O -C --if-exists --clean --inserts -d seal -x -F t -f seal.tar
pg_restore -x -f seal.tar

GNU General Public License v3.0 or later

See COPYING to see the full text.