Usage

Warning

There may be some dissimilarity in the final MSA after trimming using different versions, due to bug fixes incorporated during the development.

Here we show all the options that trimAl offers to the user. At the bottom there are some examples of how to use the tool.

Basic usage

$ trimal -in <inputfile> -out <outputfile> -<trimming_method>

Help Options

-h

Print this information and show some examples.

--version

Print the trimAl version.

Input-Output Options

-in <inputfile>

Input file in several formats. Available input formats: clustal, fasta, nexus, phylip32, phylip40, pir

-out <outputfile>

Output alignment in the same input format (default stdout).

-nbrf

Output file in NBRF/PIR format

-mega

Output file in MEGA format

-nexus

Output file in NEXUS format

-clustal

Output file in CLUSTAL format

-fasta

Output file in FASTA format

-fasta_m10

Output file in FASTA format. Sequences name length up to 10 characters.

-phylip

Output file in PHYLIP/PHYLIP4 format.

-phylip_m10

Output file in PHYLIP/PHYLIP4 format. Sequences name length up to 10 characters.

-phylip_paml

Output file in PHYLIP format compatible with PAML.

-phylip_paml_m10

Output file in PHYLIP format compatible with PAML. Sequences name length up to 10 characters.

-phylip3.2

Output file in PHYLIP3.2 format.

-phylip3.2_m10

Output file in PHYLIP3.2 format. Sequences name length up to 10 characters.

Report Output

-htmlout <outputfile>

Get a summary of trimal’s work in an HTML file.

-colnumbering

Get the relationship between the columns in the old and new alignment.

Compare Set Options

-compareset <inputfile>

Input list of paths for the files containing the alignments to compare.

-forceselect <inputfile>

Force selection of the given input file in the files comparison method.

Backtranslation Options

-backtrans <inputfile>

Use a Coding Sequences file to get a backtranslation for a given AA alignment.

-ignorestopcodon

Ignore stop codons in the input coding sequences.

-splitbystopcodon

Split input coding sequences up to first stop codon appearance.

Trimming Parameters

--alternative_matrix <name>

Select an alternative similarity matrix already loaded. Only available ‘degenerated_nt_identity’.

-matrix <inputfile>

Input file for user-defined similarity matrix (default is Blosum62).

-block <n>

Minimum column block size to be kept in the trimmed alignment. Available with manual and automatic (gappyout) methods.

-keepheader

Keep original sequence header including non-alphanumeric characters. Only available for input FASTA format files.

-keepseqs

Keep sequences even if they are composed only by gaps.

-complementary

Get the complementary alignment in residues. Reverses the effect of residue trimming: All residues that were to be removed are kept and vice versa.

-terminalonly

Only columns out of internal boundaries (first and last column without gaps) are candidates to be trimmed depending on the applied method.

Trimming Methods

Manual Selection

-selectcols { n,l,m-k }

Selection of columns to be removed from the alignment. Range: [0 - (Number of Columns - 1)]. (see User Guide).

-selectseqs { n,l,m-k }

Selection of sequences to be removed from the alignment. Range: [0 - (Number of Sequences - 1)]. (see User Guide).

Manual Trimming - Thresholds

-gt -gapthreshold <n>

1 - (fraction of gaps in the column). Range: [0 - 1] Not compatible with -gat.

-st -simthreshold <n>

Minimum average similarity required. Range: [0 - 1]

-ct -conthreshold <n>

Minimum consistency value required. Range: [0 - 1]

-cons <n>

Minimum percentage of positions in the original alignment to conserve. Range: [0 - 100]

-clusters <n>

Get the most Nth representatives sequences from a given alignment. Range: [1 - (Number of sequences)]

-maxidentity <n>

Get the representatives sequences for a given identity threshold. Range: [0 - 1].

Overlap Trimming

Overlap is defined as having a gap in both positions, an indetermination in both positions, or a residue in both positions. It’s main purpose is to remove sequences which share only a reduced region, whereas the other regions are not shared with the rest of sequences in the alignment and filled with gaps. Both overlap thresholds (-resoverlap and -seqoverlap) must be provided jointly.

Ex: Sp8 may be removed from the alignment depending on the thresholds.

Sp8 =====GLG===========TKSD—NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNWV=================

Sp17 –FAYTAPDLLL-IGFLLKTV-ATFG=================DTWFQLWQGLDLNKMPVF

Sp10 ======DPAVL–FVIMLGTI-TKFS=================SEWFFAWLGLEINMMVII

Sp26 AAAAAAAAALLTYLGLFLGTDYENFA=================AAAANAWLGLEINMMAQI

-resoverlap <n>

Minimum overlap of a positions with other positions in the column to be considered a “good position”. Range: [0 - 1]. (see User Guide).

-seqoverlap <n>

Minimum percentage of “good positions” that a sequence must have in order to be conserved. Range: [0 - 100](see User Guide).

-nogaps

Remove all positions with gaps in the alignment.

-noallgaps

Remove columns composed only by gaps.

Automated

-gappyout

Use automated selection on “gappyout” mode. This method only uses information based on gaps’ distribution.

-strict

Use automated selection on “strict” mode.

-strictplus

Use automated selection on “strictplus” mode. Optimized for Neighbour Joining phylogenetic tree reconstruction.

-automated1

Use a heuristic selection of the automatic method based on similarity statistics. (see User Guide). Optimized for Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic tree reconstruction.

Window frame

Window frame size, score of position i is the average of the window (i - n) to (i + n). Only compatible with manual methods.

-w <n>

General window frame size, applied to all stats.

Not compatible with specific sizes.

-gw <n>

Window frame size applied to Gaps.

-sw <n>

Window frame size applied to Similarity.

-cw <n>

Window frame size applied to Consistency.

Statistics Output

Statistics to be calculated and outputted by trimAl

-sgc

Print gap scores for each column in the input alignment.

-sgt

Print accumulated gap scores for the input alignment.

-ssc

Print similarity scores for each column in the input alignment.

-sst

Print accumulated similarity scores for the input alignment.

-sfc

Print sum-of-pairs scores for each column from the selected alignment.

-sft

Print accumulated sum-of-pairs scores for the selected alignment.

-sident

Print identity scores for all sequences in the input alignment. (see User Guide).

-soverlap

Print overlap scores matrix for all sequences in the input alignment. (see User Guide).

Some Examples

1. Removes all positions in the alignment with gaps in 10% or more of the sequences, unless this leaves less than 60% of original alignment. In such case, print the 60% best (with less gaps) positions.

   $ trimal -in <inputfile> -out <outputfile> -gt 0.9 -cons 60
   

2. As above but, the gap score is averaged over a window starting 3 positions before and ending 3 positions after each column.

   $ trimal -in <inputfile> -out <outputfile> -gt 0.9 -cons 60 -w 3
   

3. Use an automatic method to decide optimal thresholds, based in the gap scores from input alignment. (see User Guide for details).

   $ trimal -in <inputfile> -out <outputfile> -gappyout
   

4. Use automatic methods to decide optimal thresholds, based on the combination of gap and similarity scores. (see User Guide for details).

   $ trimal -in <inputfile> -out <outputfile> -strictplus
   

5. Use an heuristic to decide the optimal method for trimming the alignment. (see User Guide for details).

   $ trimal -in <inputfile> -out <outputfile> -automated1
   

6. Use residues and sequences overlap thresholds to delete some sequences from the alignment. (see User Guide for details).

   $ trimal -in <inputfile> -out <outputfile> -resoverlap 0.8 -seqoverlap 75
   

7. Selection of columns to be deleted from the alignment. The selection can be a column number or a column number interval. Start from 0

   $ trimal -in <inputfile> -out <outputfile> -selectcols { 0,2,3,10,45-60,68,70-78 }
   

8. Get the complementary alignment from the alignment previously trimmed.

   $ trimal -in <inputfile> -out <outputfile> -selectcols { 0,2,3,10,45-60,68,70-78 } -complementary
   

9. Selection of sequences to be deleted from the alignment. Start from 0

   $ trimal -in <inputfile> -out <outputfile> -selectseqs { 2,4,8-12 }
   

10. Select the 5 most representative sequences from the alignment

    $ trimal -in <inputfile> -out <outputfile> -selectseqs { 2,4,8-12 }