starlong-sse3
Quick Start
- Command:
STARlong-sse3 - Local executable:
/home/vimalinx/miniforge3/envs/bio/bin/STARlong-sse3 - Version: 2.7.11b
- Full reference: See references/help.md for complete options
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 SSE3-optimized binary.
Common Patterns
# 1) Build a genome index for STARlong
STARlong-sse3 \
--runMode genomeGenerate \
--genomeDir starlong_index \
--genomeFastaFiles genome.fa \
--sjdbGTFfile genes.gtf \
--runThreadN 16
# 2) Align long reads from FASTQ
STARlong-sse3 \
--genomeDir starlong_index \
--readFilesIn longreads.fastq \
--runThreadN 16
# 3) Align gzipped long reads and emit sorted BAM
STARlong-sse3 \
--genomeDir starlong_index \
--readFilesIn longreads.fastq.gz \
--readFilesCommand zcat \
--outSAMtype BAM SortedByCoordinate \
--runThreadN 16
Recommended Workflow
- Prepare a genome directory and FASTA reference; optionally provide a GTF file with
--sjdbGTFfilefor splice junction annotation. - Generate the genome index with
--runMode genomeGenerate --genomeDir <dir> --genomeFastaFiles <fasta>. - Align long reads with
--runMode alignReads --genomeDir <dir> --readFilesIn <reads.fq>. - Verify output files (alignments and splice junctions) and review summary statistics before downstream analysis.
Guardrails
- Always specify
--genomeDirpointing to a valid STAR genome index directory. - Use
--runThreadNto match available CPU cores; avoid oversubscribing system resources. - For long reads, ensure the genome index was built with appropriate
--genomeSAindexNbasesscaled to genome size.