Genomics and Epigenomics Data Processing

⚠️ TOP-OF-MIND RULE: long-format methylation CSV — count ROWS, not unique positions

When the input is a long-format methylation CSV (one row per (sample, CpG_position) e.g. columns Pos, Chromosome, MethylationPercentage), "how many sites are removed when filtering" almost always means rows removed, NOT unique-position removals. The two answers differ by a factor of ≈ n_samples.

❌ WRONG: df.drop_duplicates(["Pos"]).query("MethylationPercentage<10 or >90") then len(filtered) → counts unique positions (typically 100–1500)

✅ RIGHT: df.query("MethylationPercentage<10 or MethylationPercentage>90") then len(df) - len(filtered) → counts rows (typically 10k–30k)

If your answer is < 2000 when the data has 1000+ positions × 20+ samples, you deduplicated too early. Re-read the question's noun before reporting.

RULE ZERO — Check for pre-computed results FIRST

Before following any instruction below, scan the data folder for:

• *_executed.ipynb → read with tu run read_executed_notebook '{"data_folder":"<path>","search":"<keyword>"}' and cite its cell outputs as the authoritative answer
• Pre-computed result files (CSV/TSV with names like *results*, *deseq*, *enrich*, *stats*, *_simplified.csv) → read directly and report the requested value
• Canonical analysis scripts (analysis.R, run_*.py, find_*.R, *.Rmd) → execute as-is and read the output

Only follow this skill's re-analysis recipe below if none of the above exist. Re-running from raw data produces different numbers than the published answer and is much slower (often 5-10× turn count).

Production-ready skill combining Python computation (pandas, scipy, numpy, pysam, statsmodels) with ToolUniverse annotation tools for epigenomics analysis.

LOOK UP, DON'T GUESS

When uncertain about any scientific fact, SEARCH databases first.

When to Use

Methylation data, ChIP-seq peaks, ATAC-seq, multi-omics integration, genome-wide epigenomic statistics. Keywords: methylation, CpG, ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, histone, chromatin, epigenetic.

NOT for: RNA-seq DEG, variant calling, gene enrichment, protein structure.

Key Principles

1. Data-first - Load/inspect before analysis
2. Question-driven - Extract specific numeric answer
3. Coordinate system awareness - Track genome build (hg19/hg38/mm10), chr prefix
4. Statistical rigor - FDR correction, effect size filtering
5. CpG identification - Parse Illumina probe IDs, genomic coordinates

PRIMARY SCRIPT — methylation_density.py (use FIRST for CpG-density questions)

For long-format methylation CSVs (Pos, Chromosome, MethylationPercentage) paired with chromosome-length CSVs, ALWAYS run the bundled script before hand-rolling pandas. It deterministically computes every common metric in one pass and avoids the rows-vs-sites pitfall that produces silently-wrong answers.

python skills/tooluniverse-epigenomics/scripts/methylation_density.py \
  --cpg <CpG csv> --chr-lengths <chr lengths csv> \
  --filter-meth-extremes 90 10

The full JSON output contains every metric. Pick the one that matches the question's wording (NOT a similar-looking one):

The two density numbers (density_avg_per_chr vs density_total_over_genome) typically differ by ~2× because CpGs are not uniformly distributed across chromosomes; reporting one when the question asks for the other is the most common failure mode here.

For "sites removed" questions, the long-format CSV has multiple rows per CpG position (one per sample), so rows_removed is in the tens of thousands while unique_pos_removed is in the hundreds. Match the granularity to the question.

Distinguish "rows" vs "unique sites" — methylation CSVs are usually long-format

CpG methylation CSVs typically have ONE ROW PER (sample × CpG site) — so len(df) >> n_unique_sites. Before computing anything, decide which axis the question is asking about:

Sanity check: if your filtered count is two orders of magnitude smaller than the GT range, you likely deduped when the question wanted row-level counts (or vice versa). Re-run with the other axis and compare.

For the chi-square uniformity test: expected counts = chromosome_length / total_genome_length × n_unique_sites. The chi-square statistic depends on the count granularity (rows vs unique sites) — a row-level chi-square gives a much higher chi-square than a unique-position chi-square because n is larger.

Precedence: when an *_executed.ipynb exists, read its filtering code verbatim — df[(df.MethylationPercentage > 90) | (df.MethylationPercentage < 10)] (no dedup) and df.drop_duplicates('Pos') (with dedup) yield wildly different counts on the same dataset.

Workflow

Phase 0: Question Parsing

Identify data files, specific statistic, thresholds, genome build. Categorize by keywords. See ANALYSIS_PROCEDURES.md for decision tree.

Phase 1: Methylation Processing

• Load beta/M-value matrix (CSV/TSV/parquet/HDF5)
• Filter by variance, missing rate, probe type, chromosome, CpG island relation
• Differential methylation: T-test/Wilcoxon between groups + FDR
• Age-related CpG: Pearson/Spearman correlation + FDR
• Chromosome density: CpG count / chromosome length

Phase 2: ChIP-seq Peak Analysis

• Load BED/narrowPeak/broadPeak, normalize chromosomes
• Peak stats, annotation to genes, overlap analysis (Jaccard)

Phase 3: ATAC-seq

• NFR detection (<150bp peaks), region classification

Phase 4: Multi-Omics Integration

• Methylation-expression correlation per probe-gene (Pearson/Spearman + FDR)
• ChIP-seq + expression: promoter peaks vs expression levels

Phase 5: Clinical Data

• Missing data analysis across modalities, complete case identification

Phase 6: ToolUniverse Annotation

ENCODE tools:

• ENCODE_search_rnaseq_experiments: assay_type ("total RNA-seq" default; fall back to "polyA plus RNA-seq"), biosample, limit
• ENCODE_search_histone_experiments: target (e.g., "H3K27ac"), cell_type/tissue/biosample, limit

GEO tools: GEO_search_rnaseq_datasets, GEO_search_atacseq_datasets -- both accept limit or max_results

GTEx tools:

• GTEx_get_median_gene_expression: gene_symbol (NOT Ensembl ID)
• GTEx_query_eqtl: gene_symbol, tissue_id (case-sensitive exact, e.g., "Whole_Blood")

EWAS Catalog (published epigenome-wide association study results, not raw methylation data): EWASCatalog_search_by_cpg (cpg_id, e.g. "cg00000029") or EWASCatalog_search_by_gene (gene_symbol) — use when the question is "has this CpG/gene been associated with a trait in a published EWAS," not for processing methylation data you already have.

EWAS Atlas (curated EWAS knowledgebase, independent of the EWAS Catalog; use it when EWASCatalog_* returns HTTP 503, which it has since 2026-10-05, or to cross-check): EWASAtlas_get_probe (probe_id), EWASAtlas_search_by_gene (gene_symbol; probes ranked by association count plus metadata.top_traits), EWASAtlas_search_by_region (chromosome, start, end on GRCh37/hg19, window at most 1 Mb), EWASAtlas_get_study (study_id like "ES00033": cohorts, tissue, platform, per-probe p-values), EWASAtlas_get_publication (pmid).

hits = tu.tools.EWASAtlas_search_by_gene(gene_symbol="AHRR", limit=5)
top = hits["metadata"]["top_traits"][:3]          # e.g. smoking, maternal smoking
probe = hits["data"][0]                            # cg05575921, 131 associations
study = tu.tools.EWASAtlas_get_study(study_id=probe["associations"][0]["study_id"])

Other: ensembl_lookup_gene (requires species='homo_sapiens'), ensembl_get_regulatory_features (NO "chr" prefix), SCREEN_get_regulatory_elements, ChIPAtlas_* (requires operation param), SRA_search_experiments (library_strategy: "ChIP-Seq"/"Bisulfite-Seq"/"ATAC-seq")

Phase 7: Genome-Wide Statistics

Global mean/median beta, probe variance, chromosome density, DMP counts.

See CODE_REFERENCE.md for full implementations.

Common Patterns

GTEx Tissue IDs

Whole_Blood, Liver, Lung, Breast_Mammary_Tissue, Brain_Cortex, Heart_Left_Ventricle, Kidney_Cortex, Thyroid, Adipose_Subcutaneous, Muscle_Skeletal

Evidence Grading

Delta-beta >= 0.2 = strong effect. ChIP-seq: q < 0.01, FE >= 2 for confidence. ATAC-seq NFR < 150bp = active regulatory. Always apply BH FDR. Verify genome build consistency.

Limitations

• No pybedtools/pyBigWig: pure Python intervals
• Illumina-centric (450K/EPIC); uses t-test/Wilcoxon (not limma)
• No peak calling (assumes pre-called)
• API rate limits: ~20 genes per batch

Reference Files

CODE_REFERENCE.md, TOOLS_REFERENCE.md, ANALYSIS_PROCEDURES.md, QUICK_START.md