Bio De Deseq2 Basics

Version Compatibility

Reference examples tested with: DESeq2 1.42+, Salmon 1.10+, edgeR 4.0+, scanpy 1.10+

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

• R: packageVersion('<pkg>') then ?function_name to verify parameters

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

DESeq2 Basics

Differential expression analysis using DESeq2 for RNA-seq count data.

Required Libraries

library(DESeq2)
library(apeglm)  # For lfcShrink with type='apeglm'

Installation

if (!require('BiocManager', quietly = TRUE))
    install.packages('BiocManager')
BiocManager::install('DESeq2')
BiocManager::install('apeglm')

Creating DESeqDataSet

Goal: Construct a DESeqDataSet object from various input formats for DE analysis.

Approach: Wrap count data and sample metadata into the DESeq2 container, specifying the experimental design formula.

"Load my RNA-seq counts into DESeq2" → Create a DESeqDataSet from a count matrix, SummarizedExperiment, or tximport object with sample metadata and a design formula.

From Count Matrix

# counts: matrix with genes as rows, samples as columns
# coldata: data frame with sample metadata (rownames must match colnames of counts)
dds <- DESeqDataSetFromMatrix(countData = counts,
                               colData = coldata,
                               design = ~ condition)

From SummarizedExperiment

library(SummarizedExperiment)
dds <- DESeqDataSet(se, design = ~ condition)

From tximport (Salmon/Kallisto)

library(tximport)
txi <- tximport(files, type = 'salmon', tx2gene = tx2gene)
dds <- DESeqDataSetFromTximport(txi, colData = coldata, design = ~ condition)

Standard DESeq2 Workflow

Goal: Run the complete DESeq2 pipeline from raw counts to shrunken log fold change estimates.

Approach: Create dataset, pre-filter low-count genes, set reference level, run size factor estimation + dispersion estimation + Wald test, then apply LFC shrinkage.

"Find differentially expressed genes between treated and control" → Test for significant expression changes between conditions using negative binomial models with empirical Bayes shrinkage.

# Create DESeqDataSet
dds <- DESeqDataSetFromMatrix(countData = counts,
                               colData = coldata,
                               design = ~ condition)

# Pre-filter low count genes (recommended)
keep <- rowSums(counts(dds)) >= 10
dds <- dds[keep,]

# Set reference level for condition
dds$condition <- relevel(dds$condition, ref = 'control')

# Run DESeq2 pipeline (estimateSizeFactors, estimateDispersions, nbinomWaldTest)
dds <- DESeq(dds)

# Get results
res <- results(dds)

# Apply log fold change shrinkage (recommended for visualization/ranking)
resLFC <- lfcShrink(dds, coef = 'condition_treated_vs_control', type = 'apeglm')

Design Formulas

Goal: Specify the experimental design to model biological and nuisance variables.

Approach: Build R formula objects that encode condition, batch, and interaction terms for the GLM.

# Simple two-group comparison
design = ~ condition

# Controlling for batch effects
design = ~ batch + condition

# Interaction model
design = ~ genotype + treatment + genotype:treatment

# Multi-factor without interaction
design = ~ genotype + treatment

Specifying Contrasts

Goal: Extract results for specific pairwise or complex comparisons from a fitted DESeq2 model.

Approach: Use coefficient names or contrast vectors to define which groups to compare.

# See available coefficients
resultsNames(dds)

# Results by coefficient name
res <- results(dds, name = 'condition_treated_vs_control')

# Results by contrast (compare specific levels)
res <- results(dds, contrast = c('condition', 'treated', 'control'))

# Contrast with list format (for complex designs)
res <- results(dds, contrast = list('conditionB', 'conditionA'))

Log Fold Change Shrinkage

Goal: Reduce noisy fold change estimates for low-count genes to improve ranking and visualization.

Approach: Apply empirical Bayes shrinkage (apeglm, ashr, or normal) to moderate log fold changes toward zero.

# apeglm method (default, recommended)
resLFC <- lfcShrink(dds, coef = 'condition_treated_vs_control', type = 'apeglm')

# ashr method (alternative)
resLFC <- lfcShrink(dds, coef = 'condition_treated_vs_control', type = 'ashr')

# normal method (original, less recommended)
resLFC <- lfcShrink(dds, coef = 'condition_treated_vs_control', type = 'normal')

Setting Significance Thresholds

Goal: Control the stringency of differential expression calls using adjusted p-value and fold change cutoffs.

Approach: Set alpha for multiple testing correction and optionally apply a minimum log fold change threshold.

# Default: padj < 0.1
res <- results(dds)

# Custom alpha threshold
res <- results(dds, alpha = 0.05)

# With log fold change threshold
res <- results(dds, lfcThreshold = 1)  # |log2FC| > 1

Accessing DESeq2 Results

Goal: Retrieve, filter, and sort DE results for downstream use.

Approach: Extract results as a data frame, subset by significance, and order by p-value or fold change.

# Summary of results
summary(res)

# Get significant genes
sig <- subset(res, padj < 0.05)

# Order by adjusted p-value
resOrdered <- res[order(res$padj),]

# Order by log fold change
resOrdered <- res[order(abs(res$log2FoldChange), decreasing = TRUE),]

# Convert to data frame
res_df <- as.data.frame(res)

Result Columns

Normalization and Counts

Goal: Obtain normalized expression values suitable for visualization and cross-sample comparison.

Approach: Extract size-factor-normalized counts or apply variance-stabilizing / rlog transformations.

# Get normalized counts
normalized_counts <- counts(dds, normalized = TRUE)

# Get size factors
sizeFactors(dds)

# Variance stabilizing transformation (for visualization)
vsd <- vst(dds, blind = FALSE)

# Regularized log transformation (alternative, slower)
rld <- rlog(dds, blind = FALSE)

Multi-Factor Designs

Goal: Account for batch or other nuisance variables while testing the effect of interest.

Approach: Include batch as a covariate in the design formula so DESeq2 adjusts for it during testing.

# Design with batch correction
dds <- DESeqDataSetFromMatrix(countData = counts,
                               colData = coldata,
                               design = ~ batch + condition)
dds <- DESeq(dds)

# Extract condition effect (controlling for batch)
res <- results(dds, name = 'condition_treated_vs_control')

Interaction Models

Goal: Identify genes whose response to treatment differs between genotypes (or other factor combinations).

Approach: Fit a model with interaction terms and test the interaction coefficient for significance.

# Interaction between genotype and treatment
dds <- DESeqDataSetFromMatrix(countData = counts,
                               colData = coldata,
                               design = ~ genotype + treatment + genotype:treatment)
dds <- DESeq(dds)

# Test interaction term
res_interaction <- results(dds, name = 'genotypeKO.treatmentdrug')

# Or use contrast for difference of differences
res_interaction <- results(dds, contrast = list(
    c('genotypeKO.treatmentdrug'),
    c()
))

Likelihood Ratio Test

Goal: Test whether a factor (e.g., condition) explains significant variance compared to a reduced model.

Approach: Compare full and reduced GLMs using a likelihood ratio test instead of Wald tests.

# Compare full vs reduced model
dds <- DESeq(dds, test = 'LRT', reduced = ~ batch)

# Results from LRT
res <- results(dds)

Pre-Filtering Strategies

Goal: Remove uninformative genes to reduce multiple testing burden and improve statistical power.

Approach: Apply count-based filters requiring minimum expression across a threshold number of samples.

# Remove genes with low counts
keep <- rowSums(counts(dds)) >= 10
dds <- dds[keep,]

# Keep genes with at least n counts in at least k samples
keep <- rowSums(counts(dds) >= 10) >= 3
dds <- dds[keep,]

# Filter by expression level
keep <- rowMeans(counts(dds, normalized = TRUE)) >= 10
dds <- dds[keep,]

Working with Existing Objects

# Update design formula
design(dds) <- ~ batch + condition
dds <- DESeq(dds)

# Subset samples
dds_subset <- dds[, dds$group == 'A']

# Subset genes
dds_genes <- dds[rownames(dds) %in% gene_list,]

Exporting Results

Goal: Save DE results and normalized counts to files for sharing or downstream tools.

Approach: Convert results to data frames and write as CSV files.

# Write to CSV
write.csv(as.data.frame(resOrdered), file = 'deseq2_results.csv')

# Write normalized counts
write.csv(as.data.frame(normalized_counts), file = 'normalized_counts.csv')

Common Errors

Deprecated Features

Quick Reference: Workflow Steps

# 1. Create DESeqDataSet
dds <- DESeqDataSetFromMatrix(counts, coldata, design = ~ condition)

# 2. Pre-filter
keep <- rowSums(counts(dds)) >= 10
dds <- dds[keep,]

# 3. Set reference level
dds$condition <- relevel(dds$condition, ref = 'control')

# 4. Run DESeq2
dds <- DESeq(dds)

# 5. Get results with shrinkage
res <- lfcShrink(dds, coef = resultsNames(dds)[2], type = 'apeglm')

# 6. Filter significant results
sig <- subset(res, padj < 0.05)

Decision Guidance

Shrinkage Method Selection

Shrinkage changes LFC estimates only, NOT p-values. Use shrunken LFCs for ranking (GSEA input, heatmap ordering) and visualization (volcano x-axis). Use un-shrunken p-values for significance calls.

LRT vs Wald Test

LRT is omnibus (ANOVA-like). The LFC in LRT output is last-level-vs-reference, NOT the omnibus effect. Filter LRT results on padj only, not LFC.

Why padj = NA

Independent filtering optimizes a mean-expression cutoff at the results() step to maximize BH-adjusted rejections. This is separate from manual pre-filtering and uses the fitted model's information.

Size Factor Alternatives

Default median-of-ratios assumes most genes are NOT differentially expressed.

Pre-filtering

# Minimal (speed only; independent filtering handles statistical optimization)
keep <- rowSums(counts(dds)) >= 10

# Group-aware (recommended): require counts in at least the smallest group
keep <- rowSums(counts(dds) >= 10) >= min(table(dds$condition))

Prokaryotic RNA-seq

Bacterial/archaeal experiments differ from eukaryotic in ways that affect DESeq2:

• Use non-spliced aligners (BWA-MEM, Bowtie2) — no introns in prokaryotes
• Polycistronic operons cause read-through between adjacent genes
• rRNA depletion is essential (80-95% rRNA without poly-A selection)
• Under stress conditions, a majority of genes may be DE, violating normalization assumptions — use spike-in normalization or controlGenes with known stable housekeeping genes
• KEGG organism codes are strain-specific (e.g., pae for P. aeruginosa PAO1); find codes with clusterProfiler::search_kegg_organism()
• Annotation: use Prokka/Bakta GFF files rather than Ensembl/biomaRt

Choosing DESeq2 vs edgeR

If overlap between DESeq2 and edgeR is < 60%, investigate filtering, normalization, or dispersion — discordance usually indicates a modeling issue.

Python Alternative: PyDESeq2

from pydeseq2.dds import DeseqDataSet
from pydeseq2.ds import DeseqStats

dds = DeseqDataSet(counts=count_df, metadata=metadata, design='~condition')
dds.deseq2()
stat_res = DeseqStats(dds, contrast=('condition', 'treated', 'control'))
stat_res.summary()
results_df = stat_res.results_df

PyDESeq2 (scverse, v0.5+) supports Wald test, multi-factor designs, apeglm shrinkage. No LRT yet. Results closely match R DESeq2.

Related Skills

• edger-basics - Alternative DE analysis with edgeR
• de-visualization - MA plots, volcano plots, heatmaps
• de-results - Extract and export significant genes