visualise_methylation: Visualise methylation probabilities for many DNA sequences

In ggDNAvis: 'ggplot2'-Based Tools for Visualising DNA Sequences and Modifications

Visualise methylation probabilities for many DNA sequences

Description

This function takes vectors of modifications locations, modification probabilities, and sequence lengths (e.g. created by extract_methylation_from_dataframe()) and visualises the probability of methylation (or other modification) across each read.

Assumes that the three main input vectors are of equal length n and represent n sequences (e.g. Nanopore reads), where locations are the indices along each read at which modification was assessed, probabilities are the probability of modification at each assessed site, and lengths are the lengths of each sequence.

For each sequence, renders non-assessed (e.g. non-CpG) bases as other_bases_colour, renders background (including after the end of the sequence) as background_colour, and renders assessed bases on a linear scale from low_colour to high_colour.

Clamping means that the endpoints of the colour gradient can be set some distance into the probability space e.g. with Nanopore > SAM probability values from 0-255, the default is to render 0 as fully blue (⁠#0000FF⁠), 255 as fully red (⁠#FF0000⁠), and values in between linearly interpolated. However, clamping with low_clamp = 100 and high_clamp = 200 would set all probabilities up to 100 as fully blue, all probabilities 200 and above as fully red, and linearly interpolate only over the 100-200 range.

A separate scalebar plot showing the colours corresponding to each probability, with any/no clamping values, can be produced via visualise_methylation_colour_scale().

Usage

visualise_methylation(
  modification_locations,
  modification_probabilities,
  sequence_lengths,
  low_colour = "blue",
  high_colour = "red",
  low_clamp = 0,
  high_clamp = 255,
  background_colour = "white",
  other_bases_colour = "grey",
  outline_colour = "black",
  outline_linewidth = 3,
  outline_join = "mitre",
  modified_bases_outline_colour = NA,
  modified_bases_outline_linewidth = NA,
  modified_bases_outline_join = NA,
  other_bases_outline_colour = NA,
  other_bases_outline_linewidth = NA,
  other_bases_outline_join = NA,
  margin = 0.5,
  return = TRUE,
  filename = NA,
  render_device = ragg::agg_png,
  pixels_per_base = 20
)

Arguments

modification_locations	⁠character vector⁠. One character value for each sequence, storing a condensed string (e.g. "3,6,9,12", produced via vector_to_string()) of the indices along the read at which modification was assessed. Indexing starts at 1.
modification_probabilities	⁠character vector⁠. One character value for each sequence, storing a condensed string (e.g. "0,128,255,15", produced via vector_to_string()) of the probability of methylation/modification at each assessed base. Assumed to be Nanopore > SAM style modification stored as an 8-bit integer from 0 to 255, but changing other arguments could make this work on other scales.
sequence_lengths	⁠numeric vector⁠. The length of each sequence.
low_colour	character. The colour that should be used to represent minimum probability of methylation/modification (defaults to blue).
high_colour	character. The colour that should be used to represent maximum probability of methylation/modification (defaults to red).
low_clamp	numeric. The minimum probability below which all values are coloured low_colour. Defaults to 0 (i.e. no clamping). To specify a proportion probability in 8-bit form, multiply by 255 e.g. to low-clamp at 30% probability, set this to 0.3*255.
high_clamp	numeric. The maximum probability above which all values are coloured high_colour. Defaults to 255 (i.e. no clamping, assuming Nanopore > SAM style modification calling where probabilities are 8-bit integers from 0 to 255).
background_colour	character. The colour the background should be drawn (defaults to white).
other_bases_colour	character. The colour non-assessed (e.g. non-CpG) bases should be drawn (defaults to grey).
outline_colour	character. The colour of the box outlines. Defaults to black.
outline_linewidth	numeric. The linewidth of the box outlines. Defaults to 3. Set to 0 to disable box outlines.
outline_join	character. One of "mitre", "round", or "bevel" specifying how outlines should be joined at the corners of boxes. Defaults to "mitre". It would be unusual to need to change this.
modified_bases_outline_colour	character. If NA (default), inherits from outline_colour. If not NA, overrides outline_colour for modification-assessed bases only.
modified_bases_outline_linewidth	numeric. If NA (default), inherits from outline_linewidth. If not NA, overrides outline_linewidth for modification-assessed bases only.
modified_bases_outline_join	character. If NA (default), inherits from outline_join. If not NA, overrides outline_join for modification-assessed bases only.
other_bases_outline_colour	character. If NA (default), inherits from outline_colour. If not NA, overrides outline_colour for non-modification-assessed bases only.
other_bases_outline_linewidth	numeric. If NA (default), inherits from outline_linewidth. If not NA, overrides outline_linewidth for non-modification-assessed bases only.
other_bases_outline_join	character. If NA (default), inherits from outline_join. If not NA, overrides outline_join for non-modification-assessed bases only.
margin	numeric. The size of the margin relative to the size of each base square. Defaults to 0.5 (half the side length of each base square).
return	logical. Boolean specifying whether this function should return the ggplot object, otherwise it will return invisible(NULL). Defaults to TRUE.
filename	character. Filename to which output should be saved. If set to NA (default), no file will be saved. Recommended to end with ".png", but can change if render device is changed.
render_device	⁠function/character⁠. Device to use when rendering. See ggplot2::ggsave() documentation for options. Defaults to ragg::agg_png. Can be set to NULL to infer from file extension, but results may vary between systems.
pixels_per_base	integer. How large each box should be in pixels, if file output is turned on via setting filename. Corresponds to dpi of the exported image. Defaults to 20. Low values acceptable as currently this function does not write any text.

Value

A ggplot object containing the full visualisation, or invisible(NULL) if return = FALSE. It is often more useful to use filename = "myfilename.png", because then the visualisation is exported at the correct aspect ratio.

Examples

## Extract info from dataframe
methylation_info <- extract_methylation_from_dataframe(example_many_sequences)

## Visualise example_many_sequences with all defaults
## This looks ugly because it isn't at the right scale/aspect ratio
visualise_methylation(
    methylation_info$locations,
    methylation_info$probabilities,
    methylation_info$lengths
)

## Export with all defaults rather than returning
visualise_methylation(
    methylation_info$locations,
    methylation_info$probabilities,
    methylation_info$lengths,
    filename = "example_vm_01.png",
    return = FALSE
)
## View exported image
image <- png::readPNG("example_vm_01.png")
unlink("example_vm_01.png")
grid::grid.newpage()
grid::grid.raster(image)

## Export with customisation
visualise_methylation(
    methylation_info$locations,
    methylation_info$probabilities,
    methylation_info$lengths,
    filename = "example_vm_02.png",
    return = FALSE,
    low_colour = "white",
    high_colour = "black",
    low_clamp = 0.3*255,
    high_clamp = 0.7*255,
    other_bases_colour = "lightblue1",
    other_bases_outline_linewidth = 1,
    other_bases_outline_colour = "grey",
    modified_bases_outline_linewidth = 3,
    modified_bases_outline_colour = "black",
    margin = 0.3
)
## View exported image
image <- png::readPNG("example_vm_02.png")
unlink("example_vm_02.png")
grid::grid.newpage()
grid::grid.raster(image)

ggDNAvis documentation built on Nov. 5, 2025, 7:36 p.m.