starlong-avx2
Quick Start
- Command:
STARlong-avx2 --genomeDir /path/to/index --readFilesIn reads.fq - Local executable:
/home/vimalinx/miniforge3/envs/bio/bin/STARlong-avx2 - Full reference: references/help.md
When To Use This Tool
- Align long RNA-seq reads from PacBio or Nanopore with STARlong.
- Build or reuse STAR-compatible genome indices for long-read splice-aware mapping.
- Map full-length transcript reads while keeping STAR-style splice-junction outputs.
- Run a long-read-focused STAR wrapper using the AVX2-optimized binary.
Common Patterns
# 1) Build a genome index for STARlong
STARlong-avx2 \
--runMode genomeGenerate \
--genomeDir starlong_index \
--genomeFastaFiles genome.fa \
--sjdbGTFfile genes.gtf \
--runThreadN 16
# 2) Align long reads from FASTQ
STARlong-avx2 \
--genomeDir starlong_index \
--readFilesIn longreads.fastq \
--runThreadN 16
# 3) Align gzipped long reads and emit sorted BAM
STARlong-avx2 \
--genomeDir starlong_index \
--readFilesIn longreads.fastq.gz \
--readFilesCommand zcat \
--outSAMtype BAM SortedByCoordinate \
--runThreadN 16
Recommended Workflow
- Prepare or obtain a genome index directory using
--runMode genomeGeneratewith FASTA and optional GTF files - Run alignment with
STARlong-avx2 --genomeDir <index> --readFilesIn <reads>adjusting--runThreadNfor parallelism - Use
--readFilesCommand zcatfor gzipped input files as needed - Review output files (Aligned.out.sam, SJ.out.tab) and check Log.final.out for mapping statistics
Guardrails
- Always specify
--genomeDirpointing to a valid STAR genome index directory - Set
--runThreadNappropriately for available CPU cores to avoid resource contention - Ensure input read files match the expected format (FASTA/FASTQ); use
--readFilesCommandfor compressed files