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Sequana FastQC

sequana_fastqc is a Sequana pipeline for quality control of raw sequencing data. It runs FastQC and MultiQC on FASTQ files to assess sequencing quality, identify technical issues, and detect common contaminants.

This page hosts example HTML outputs generated by sequana_fastqc on real datasets so you can explore the reports without running the pipeline yourself.

Overview

The pipeline performs the following steps:

Use this pipeline early in your analysis workflow to ensure data quality before proceeding with downstream processing (mapping, variant calling, assembly, etc.).

Demo Dataset

The reports below were produced from paired-end RNA-seq reads of Measles virus (archival test data). The dataset is publicly available on Zenodo (record 12187421) and consists of 2 paired-end FASTQ files (R1 and R2) totaling ~143 MB when compressed.

Show command line & data links
sequana_fastqc \
  --input-directory measles/ \
  --working-directory fastqc_report \
  --force

Test data (Zenodo 12187421):

measles_R1_.fastq.gz   ·   measles_R2_.fastq.gz

Versions: sequana_fastqc 0.1.x · sequana 0.20.x · FastQC 0.11.x · MultiQC 1.13+

HTML Report Examples

Summary report
Quick overview of FastQC results across all samples: pass/warn/fail flags, sequence counts, and quality metrics at a glance.
MultiQC — detailed analysis
Comprehensive quality control metrics: per-base quality, sequence composition, adapter content, GC distribution, and duplication levels across all samples.

⚙️ How to Use This Pipeline

Install sequana_fastqc and run on your own data:

1. Install

pip install sequana_fastqc

2. Initialize workflow

sequana_fastqc --input-directory /path/to/fastqs --working-directory fastqc_output

2b. (Optional) Use Apptainer for containerized dependencies

If you prefer isolated environments, Apptainer automatically downloads and caches container images of FastQC, MultiQC, and other dependencies:

sequana_fastqc --input-directory /path/to/fastqs \
  --working-directory fastqc_output \
  --apptainer-prefix ~/images

The --apptainer-prefix ~/images flag tells Snakemake to download and cache third-party tool containers (FastQC, MultiQC) in ~/images/ for reuse across runs.

3. Run with Snakemake

cd fastqc_output
snakemake -c 4  # Use as many cores as needed

For more options, see the GitHub README or Sequana documentation.