Biostrings (version 2.40.2)

reverseComplement: Sequence reversing and complementing

Description

Use these functions for reversing sequences and/or complementing DNA or RNA sequences.

Usage

complement(x, ...)
reverseComplement(x, ...)

Arguments

x

A DNAString, RNAString, DNAStringSet, RNAStringSet, XStringViews (with DNAString or RNAString subject), MaskedDNAString or MaskedRNAString object for complement and reverseComplement.

...

Additional arguments to be passed to or from methods.

Value

An object of the same class and length as the original object.

Details

See ?reverse for reversing an XString, XStringSet or XStringViews object.

If x is a DNAString or RNAString object, complement(x) returns an object where each base in x is "complemented" i.e. A, C, G, T in a DNAString object are replaced by T, G, C, A respectively and A, C, G, U in a RNAString object are replaced by U, G, C, A respectively.

Letters belonging to the IUPAC Extended Genetic Alphabet are also replaced by their complement (M <-> K, R <-> Y, S <-> S, V <-> B, W <-> W, H <-> D, N <-> N) and the gap ("-") and hard masking ("+") letters are unchanged.

reverseComplement(x) is equivalent to reverse(complement(x)) but is faster and more memory efficient.

See Also

reverse, DNAString-class, RNAString-class, DNAStringSet-class, RNAStringSet-class, XStringViews-class, MaskedXString-class, chartr, findPalindromes, IUPAC_CODE_MAP

Examples

## ---------------------------------------------------------------------
## A. SOME SIMPLE EXAMPLES
## ---------------------------------------------------------------------

x <- DNAString("ACGT-YN-")
reverseComplement(x)

library(drosophila2probe)
probes <- DNAStringSet(drosophila2probe)
probes
alphabetFrequency(probes, collapse=TRUE)
rcprobes <- reverseComplement(probes)
rcprobes
alphabetFrequency(rcprobes, collapse=TRUE)

## ---------------------------------------------------------------------
## B. OBTAINING THE MISMATCH PROBES OF A CHIP
## ---------------------------------------------------------------------

pm2mm <- function(probes)
{
    probes <- DNAStringSet(probes)
    subseq(probes, start=13, end=13) <- complement(subseq(probes, start=13, end=13))
    probes
}
mmprobes <- pm2mm(probes)
mmprobes
alphabetFrequency(mmprobes, collapse=TRUE)

## ---------------------------------------------------------------------
## C. SEARCHING THE MINUS STRAND OF A CHROMOSOME
## ---------------------------------------------------------------------
## Applying reverseComplement() to the pattern before calling
## matchPattern() is the recommended way of searching hits on the
## minus strand of a chromosome.

library(BSgenome.Dmelanogaster.UCSC.dm3)
chrX <- Dmelanogaster$chrX
pattern <- DNAString("ACCAACNNGGTTG")
matchPattern(pattern, chrX, fixed=FALSE)  # 3 hits on strand +
rcpattern <- reverseComplement(pattern)
rcpattern
m0 <- matchPattern(rcpattern, chrX, fixed=FALSE)
m0  # 5 hits on strand -

## Applying reverseComplement() to the subject instead of the pattern is not
## a good idea for 2 reasons:
## (1) Chromosome sequences are generally big and sometimes very big
##     so computing the reverse complement of the positive strand will
##     take time and memory proportional to its length.
chrXminus <- reverseComplement(chrX)  # needs to allocate 22M of memory!
chrXminus
## (2) Chromosome locations are generally given relatively to the positive
##     strand, even for features located in the negative strand, so after
##     doing this:
m1 <- matchPattern(pattern, chrXminus, fixed=FALSE)
##     the start/end of the matches are now relative to the negative strand.
##     You need to apply reverseComplement() again on the result if you want
##     them to be relative to the positive strand:
m2 <- reverseComplement(m1)  # allocates 22M of memory, again!
##     and finally to apply rev() to sort the matches from left to right
##     (5'3' direction) like in m0:
m3 <- rev(m2) # same as m0, finally!

## WARNING: Before you try the example below on human chromosome 1, be aware
## that it will require the allocation of about 500Mb of memory!
if (interactive()) {
  library(BSgenome.Hsapiens.UCSC.hg18)
  chr1 <- Hsapiens$chr1
  matchPattern(pattern, reverseComplement(chr1))  # DON'T DO THIS!
  matchPattern(reverseComplement(pattern), chr1)  # DO THIS INSTEAD
}