Streamlining large-scale genomic data management: Insights from the UK Biobank whole-genome sequencing data.

ABSTRACT: Biobank-scale whole-genome sequencing (WGS) studies are increasingly pivotal in unraveling the genetic bases of diverse health outcomes. However, managing and analyzing these datasets' sheer volume and complexity presents significant challenges. We highlight the annotated genomic data structure (aGDS) format, substantially reducing the WGS data file size while enabling seamless integration of genomic and functional information for comprehensive WGS analyses. The aGDS format yielded 23 chromosome-specific files for the UK Biobank 500k WGS dataset, occupying only 1.10 tebibytes of storage. We develop the vcf2agds toolkit that streamlines the conversion of WGS data from VCF to aGDS format. Additionally, the STAARpipeline equipped with the aGDS files enabled scalable, comprehensive, and functi

SUBMITTER: Li X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12802598 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature