Version Compatibility

Reference examples tested with: bcftools 1.19+, numpy 1.26+

Before using code patterns, verify installed versions match. If versions differ:

• Python:

  pip show <package>

  then

  help(module.function)

  to check signatures
• CLI:

  <tool> --version

  then

  <tool> --help

  to confirm flags

If code throws ImportError, AttributeError, or TypeError, introspect the installed package and adapt the example to match the actual API rather than retrying.

VCF Statistics

Generate statistics and quality metrics using bcftools.

Statistics Tools

bcftools stats

bcftools gtcheck

bcftools query

bcftools stats

Goal: Generate comprehensive variant statistics including counts, Ti/Tv ratio, and quality distributions.

Approach: Run bcftools stats and parse section-tagged output lines (SN, TSTV, AF, QUAL, DP).

"How many variants are in this VCF?" → Compute summary counts, substitution types, and quality distributions from variant records.

Basic Statistics

bcftools stats input.vcf.gz > stats.txt

View Key Metrics

bcftools stats input.vcf.gz | grep "^SN"

Output sections:

• SN

  - Summary numbers

• TSTV

  - Transitions/transversions

• SiS

  - Singleton stats

• AF

  - Allele frequency distribution

• QUAL

  - Quality distribution

• IDD

  - Indel distribution

• ST

  - Substitution types

• DP

  - Depth distribution

Summary Numbers (SN)

bcftools stats input.vcf.gz | grep "^SN" | cut -f3-

Reports:

• Number of samples
• Number of records
• Number of SNPs
• Number of indels
• Number of multiallelic sites
• Number of multiallelic SNPs

Transition/Transversion Ratio

bcftools stats input.vcf.gz | grep "^TSTV"

Expected Ti/Tv ratio:

• Whole genome: ~2.0-2.1
• Exome: ~2.8-3.3

Per-Sample Statistics

bcftools stats -s - input.vcf.gz > per_sample.txt

Compare Two VCFs

bcftools stats input1.vcf.gz input2.vcf.gz > comparison.txt

Region-Specific Stats

bcftools stats -r chr1:1000000-2000000 input.vcf.gz > region_stats.txt

Exome Statistics

bcftools stats -R exome.bed input.vcf.gz > exome_stats.txt

Plotting Statistics

Goal: Visualize variant statistics as publication-quality plots.

Approach: Pipe bcftools stats output to plot-vcfstats to generate PDF and PNG plots.

Generate Plots

bcftools stats input.vcf.gz > stats.txt
plot-vcfstats -p output_dir stats.txt

Creates:

• output_dir/summary.pdf

• Individual PNG files

Comparison Plots

bcftools stats file1.vcf.gz file2.vcf.gz > comparison.txt
plot-vcfstats -p comparison_dir comparison.txt

bcftools gtcheck

Goal: Verify sample identity and detect sample swaps by comparing genotype concordance.

Approach: Use bcftools gtcheck to compute pairwise discordance rates between samples or against a reference panel.

Check Sample Identity

bcftools gtcheck -g reference.vcf.gz query.vcf.gz

Reports concordance between samples.

Detect Sample Swaps

bcftools gtcheck -G 1 input.vcf.gz > relatedness.txt

Compares all samples pairwise.

Output Format

DC  0  sample1  sample2  0.95  1234  1200

Fields:

• DC: Data type (discordance)
• Index
• Sample 1
• Sample 2
• Discordance rate
• Sites compared
• Discordant sites

Check Against Reference Panel

bcftools gtcheck -g 1000genomes.vcf.gz unknown_sample.vcf.gz

Quick Statistics with Query

Goal: Compute targeted summary statistics using bcftools query and shell tools.

Approach: Extract specific fields with bcftools query/view and aggregate with awk for counts, means, and distributions.

Count Variants

bcftools view -H input.vcf.gz | wc -l

Count by Type

# SNPs
bcftools view -v snps -H input.vcf.gz | wc -l

# Indels
bcftools view -v indels -H input.vcf.gz | wc -l

Count PASS Variants

bcftools view -f PASS -H input.vcf.gz | wc -l

Quality Distribution

bcftools query -f '%QUAL\n' input.vcf.gz | \
    awk '{sum+=$1; count++} END {print "Mean QUAL:", sum/count}'

Depth Distribution

bcftools query -f '%INFO/DP\n' input.vcf.gz | \
    awk '{sum+=$1; count++} END {print "Mean DP:", sum/count}'

Genotype Counts

# Count heterozygous sites per sample
bcftools query -f '[%GT\t]\n' input.vcf.gz | \
    awk -F'\t' '{for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) if($i=="0/1" || $i=="0|1") het[i]++}
        END {for(i in het) print "Sample", i, "het:", het[i]}'

Allele Frequency Spectrum

bcftools query -f '%INFO/AF\n' input.vcf.gz | \
    awk '{
        if($1<0.01) rare++
        else if($1<0.05) low++
        else if($1<0.5) common++
        else freq++
    } END {
        print "Rare (<1%):", rare
        print "Low (1-5%):", low
        print "Common (5-50%):", common
        print "Frequent (>50%):", freq
    }'

Sample Statistics

Goal: Compute per-sample variant counts, genotype distributions, and missingness rates.

Approach: Use bcftools query/view/stats per sample to tabulate sample-level metrics.

List Samples

bcftools query -l input.vcf.gz

Count Samples

bcftools query -l input.vcf.gz | wc -l

Per-Sample Variant Counts

for sample in $(bcftools query -l input.vcf.gz); do
    count=$(bcftools view -s "$sample" -H input.vcf.gz | \
        bcftools view -c 1 -H | wc -l)
    echo "$sample: $count"
done

Missing Genotypes per Sample

bcftools stats -s - input.vcf.gz | grep "^PSC"

cyvcf2 Statistics

Goal: Compute variant statistics programmatically in Python for custom analyses.

Approach: Iterate variants with cyvcf2, accumulate counts by type, and compute quality/genotype distributions with numpy.

Basic Counts

from cyvcf2 import VCF

stats = {'snps': 0, 'indels': 0, 'other': 0}

for variant in VCF('input.vcf.gz'):
    if variant.is_snp:
        stats['snps'] += 1
    elif variant.is_indel:
        stats['indels'] += 1
    else:
        stats['other'] += 1

print(f'SNPs: {stats["snps"]}')
print(f'Indels: {stats["indels"]}')
print(f'Other: {stats["other"]}')

Quality Statistics

from cyvcf2 import VCF
import numpy as np

quals = []
for variant in VCF('input.vcf.gz'):
    if variant.QUAL:
        quals.append(variant.QUAL)

quals = np.array(quals)
print(f'Mean QUAL: {np.mean(quals):.1f}')
print(f'Median QUAL: {np.median(quals):.1f}')
print(f'Min QUAL: {np.min(quals):.1f}')
print(f'Max QUAL: {np.max(quals):.1f}')

Genotype Distribution

from cyvcf2 import VCF

vcf = VCF('input.vcf.gz')
samples = vcf.samples

hom_ref = [0] * len(samples)
het = [0] * len(samples)
hom_alt = [0] * len(samples)
missing = [0] * len(samples)

for variant in vcf:
    for i, gt in enumerate(variant.gt_types):
        if gt == 0:
            hom_ref[i] += 1
        elif gt == 1:
            het[i] += 1
        elif gt == 3:
            hom_alt[i] += 1
        else:
            missing[i] += 1

for i, sample in enumerate(samples):
    print(f'{sample}: HOM_REF={hom_ref[i]}, HET={het[i]}, HOM_ALT={hom_alt[i]}, MISS={missing[i]}')

Transition/Transversion Calculation

from cyvcf2 import VCF

transitions = 0
transversions = 0

ti_pairs = {('A', 'G'), ('G', 'A'), ('C', 'T'), ('T', 'C')}

for variant in VCF('input.vcf.gz'):
    if not variant.is_snp:
        continue
    ref = variant.REF
    alt = variant.ALT[0]
    if (ref, alt) in ti_pairs:
        transitions += 1
    else:
        transversions += 1

ratio = transitions / transversions if transversions > 0 else 0
print(f'Transitions: {transitions}')
print(f'Transversions: {transversions}')
print(f'Ti/Tv ratio: {ratio:.2f}')

Common Workflows

Goal: Run standard QC and comparison workflows for variant call evaluation.

Approach: Combine bcftools stats, grep, and plot-vcfstats for before/after filtering comparisons and sample relatedness checks.

Quality Control Report

# Generate stats
bcftools stats input.vcf.gz > stats.txt

# Extract key metrics
echo "=== VCF Summary ==="
grep "^SN" stats.txt | cut -f3-

echo ""
echo "=== Ti/Tv Ratio ==="
grep "^TSTV" stats.txt | cut -f5

# Generate plots
plot-vcfstats -p qc_plots stats.txt

Compare Before/After Filtering

bcftools stats raw.vcf.gz filtered.vcf.gz > comparison.txt

echo "=== Before Filtering ==="
grep "^SN.*raw" comparison.txt | cut -f3-

echo ""
echo "=== After Filtering ==="
grep "^SN.*filtered" comparison.txt | cut -f3-

Sample Relatedness Check

bcftools gtcheck -G 1 cohort.vcf.gz > relatedness.txt
cat relatedness.txt

Quick Reference

bcftools stats input.vcf.gz

bcftools stats input.vcf.gz | grep "^SN"

bcftools stats input.vcf.gz | grep "^TSTV"

bcftools stats -s - input.vcf.gz

bcftools stats file1.vcf.gz file2.vcf.gz

bcftools gtcheck -G 1 input.vcf.gz

plot-vcfstats -p dir stats.txt

Common Errors

No data

plot-vcfstats not found

Cannot open

Related Skills

• vcf-basics - View and query VCF files
• filtering-best-practices - Evaluate filter impact
• vcf-manipulation - Compare call sets
• variant-calling - Assess calling quality