Access, use and manage big, biological datasets.

Bio_db gives access to pre-packed biological databases and simplifies management and translation of biological data to Prolog friendly formats.

There are currently 2 major types of data supported: maps, and graphs. Maps define product mappings, translations and memberships, while graphs define interactions which can be visualised as weighed graphs (see bio_db_data_predicate/4 for a full list of statically generated list of bio_db data predicates).

There are 2 prolog flags (see current_prolog_flag/2) that can control the behaviour of the library: bio_db_qcompile (def: true) and bio_db_interface (def: prolog). When the first one is set to false, it can disable the compilation to

Bio_db itself does include any of the datasets. You can either download the separate pack(bio_db_repo) which contains all of the Prolog datasets or let pack(bio_db) download the data file one at the time- as needed. As of version v4.4 there are 144 associated data predicates serving 76398976 records.

This pack can be installed as per usual via

?- pack(bio_db_repo).

However, please note this will download all available tables (zipped) with a total download of 477Mb (v4.4). The first time a table is interrogated it is unzipped ot the .pl version and the interpreter automatically also create a .qlf. When the all the tables have been access at least once, the pack will take around 6.3Gb (v4.4).

If you do not want to install all datasets, you should not install the pack as above. Instead pack(bio_db) will download individual data tables the first time you try to access some of its data. Auto-downloading works transparently to the user, where a data set is downloaded by simply calling the predicate.

For example

?- hgnc_homs_symb_hgnc( 'LMTK3', Hgnc ).
% prolog DB:table hgnc:hgnc_homs_symb_hgnc/2 is not installed, do you want to download (Y/n) ?
% Trying to get: url_file(http://www.stoics.org.uk/bio_db_repo/data/maps/hgnc/hgnc_homs_symb_hgnc.pl,/usr/local/users/nicos/local/git/test_bio_db/data/maps/hgnc/hgnc_homs_symb_hgnc.pl)
% Loading prolog db: /usr/local/users/nicos/local/git/test_bio_db/data/maps/hgnc/hgnc_homs_symb_hgnc.pl
Hgnc = 19295.

?- bio_db_interface( prosqlite ).
% Setting bio_db_interface prolog_flag, to: prosqlite
true.

?- hgnc_homs_prev_symb( Prv, Symb ).
% prosqlite DB:table hgnc:hgnc_homs_prev_symb/2 is not installed, do you want to download (Y/n) ?
% Trying to get: url_file(http://www.stoics.org.uk/bio_db_repo/data/maps/hgnc/hgnc_homs_prev_symb.sqlite,/usr/local/users/nicos/local/git/test_bio_db/data/maps/hgnc/hgnc_homs_prev_symb.sqlite)
false.

?- hgnc_homs_prev_symb( Prv, Symb ).
% prosqlite DB:table hgnc:hgnc_homs_prev_symb/2 is not installed, do you want to download (Y/n) ?
% Trying to get: url_file(http://www.stoics.org.uk/bio_db_repo/data/maps/hgnc/hgnc_homs_prev_symb.sqlite,/usr/local/users/nicos/local/git/test_bio_db/data/maps/hgnc/hgnc_homs_prev_symb.sqlite)
% Loading prosqlite db: /usr/local/users/nicos/local/git/test_bio_db/data/maps/hgnc/hgnc_homs_prev_symb.sqlite
Prv = 'A1BG-AS',
Symb = 'A1BG-AS1' .

See bio_db_data_predicate/4 for a way to enumerate all data predicates. The source of which is in src/bio_db_data_predicate.pl which also includes in the comments the cell structure.

As of version 2.0 bio_db is formed of a number of hierarchically organised cells that can be loaded independently. This is because there now too many predicates and is also a devise for better supporting organism specific data. There are currently two main cells, hs (human) and mouse. Each sub-celled by data source of origin.

?- use_module(library(bio_db)).

Loads the whole interface (all cells), without the user needing to be aware of anything. The only difference is that the user will not be able to see all the module predicates at the first line of file pack(bio_db/prolog/bio_db.pl)).

?- lib(bio_db).

Also loads everything.

?- lib(& bio_db).

Loads the skeleton of the module (cells usually laod the module dependencies like this).

?- lib(& bio_db(hs)).

Loads hs cell (and skeleton). hs comprises of a number of sub-cells.

?- lib(& bio_db(hs(hgnc))).

Loads the hs/hgnc primary cell (and the skeleton).

In both the above loads, the following becomes available, however, the former load also loads additional predicates for human, but non hgnc based.

?- hgnc_homs_hgnc_symb( Hgnc, 'LMTK3' ).
Hgnc = 19295.

The following

?- use_module( pack('bio_db/cell/hs/hgnc') ).

also loads just the HGNC part of the human section of bio_db, but it is not a recommended way to do so.

Organisms

galg: Gallus gallus (red junglefowl), colloquial: chicken
homs: Homo sapiens, colloquial: human
mult: covers multiple organisms, longer form: multi
musm: Mus musculus, colloquial: mouse
suss: Sus scrofa (wild boar or Eurasian boar) colloquial: pig

Databases

Ensembl=ense: Homo sapiens genes and proteins. Genes and trascripts mappings along with mapping to genomic location (latter not included in release yet)
HGNC=hgnc: Hugo Gene Nomenclature Committee, http://www.genenames.org/
NCBI=ncbi: NCBI
Uniprot=unip: Protein database.
String=strg: Protein-Protein interactions data base
MGI=mgim: Mouse Genome Informatics, mouse specific datasets (last M for marker, their identifier)
Reactome=reac: Pathway database

For each database, a relation token with the same name, maps the field is the unique identifier of that database.

Other relation tokens

symb: HGNC gene symbol (short, unique name for genes)
name: (HGNC) gene name (long, less standarised version of gene name)
prev: HGNC previous gene symbol
syno: HGNC gene symbol synonym
ensg: ensembl gene
enst: ensembl transcript
ensp: ensembl protein
gonm: GO name of a term
pros: Prosite protein family information
rnuc: RNA nucleic sequence ID to HGNC symbol.
unig: uniprotein gene id
sprt: Swiss-Prot part of Uniprot (high quality, curated)
trem: TrEMBL part of Uniprot (non curated)
mgim: MGI Marker (identifier for Mouse Genome Informatics Markers)
cgnc: Chicken gene nomenclature committee
taxo: taxonomy id (NCBI)
scnm: scientific names for species (NCBI)
gbnm: genbank common name (NCBI)

The name convention for map predicates is

   ?- hgnc_homs_hgnc_symb( Hgnc, Symb ).
   Hgnc = 1,
   Symb = 'A12M1~withdrawn' ;
   Hgnc = 2,
   Symb = 'A12M2~withdrawn' .

   ?- hgnc_homs_hgnc_symb( 19295, Symb ).
   Symb = 'LMTK3'.

   ?- hgnc_homs_symb_hgnc( 'LMTK3', Hgnc ).
  Hgnc = 19295.

Where the first hgnc corresponds to the source database, the second token, homs, identifies the organism, the third and fourth tokens are the fields of the map. Above, the second hgnc

The last part of the predicate name corresponds to the second (or all other) argument(s), which here is the unique Symbol assigned to a gene by HGNC. In the current version of bio_db, all tokens in map filenames are 4 characters long. Map data for predicate Pname from database DB are looked for in DB(Pname.Ext) (see bio_db_paths/0). Extension, Ext, depends on the current bio_db database interface (see bio_db_interface/1), and it is sqlite if the interface is prosqlite and pl otherwise.

The name convention for graphs is

  ?- strg_homs_edge_symb( Symb1, Symb2, W ).
  S1 = 'A1BG',
  S2 = 'ABAT',
  W = 360 ;
  S1 = 'A1BG',
  S2 = 'ABCC6',
  W = 158 .

The first part indicates the database and the second one the organism/species. Graph data for predicate Pname from database DB are looked for in bio_db_data(graphs/DB/Pname.Ext) (see bio_db_paths/1). Extension, Ext, depends on the current bio_db database interface (see bio_db_interface/1), and it is sqlite if the interface is prosqlite and pl otherwise.

Bio_db supports four db interfaces: prolog, prosqlite, berkeley and rocks. The first one is via Prolog fact bases, which is the default. The second is an interface to SQLite via pack(prosqlite) while the third and fourth work with the SWI-Prolog packs bdb and rocksdb. The underlying mechanisms are entirely transparent to the user. In order to use the sqlite data sources pack(prosqlite) needs to be installed via the pack manager

 ?- pack_install( prosqlite ).

The user can control which interface is in use with the bio_db_interface/1 predicate.

 ?- bio_db_interface( Curr ).
 Curr = prolog.

 ?- bio_db_interface( prosqlite ).

 ?- bio_db_interface( Curr ).
 Curr = prosqlite.

The type of the interface of a bio_db data predicate is determined by the interface at the time of first call.

Once the user has initiated the serving of a predicate via calling a goal to it, it is then possible to have access to information about the dataset such as download date and sourle url.

?- hgnc_homs_hgnc_symb( Hgnc, Symb ).
Hgnc = 1,
Symb = 'A12M1~withdrawn' .

?- bio_db_info( hgnc_homs_hgnc_symb/2, Key, Value ), write( Key-Value ), nl, fail.
interface-prolog
source_url-ftp://ftp.ebi.ac.uk/pub/databases/genenames/hgnc_complete_set.txt.gz
datetime-datetime(2018,11,27,12,32,11)
data_types-data_types(integer,atom)
unique_lengths-unique_lengths(46023,46023,46023)
relation_type-relation_type(1,1)
header-row(HGNC ID,Approved Symbol)
false

As of version 2.0 there are two flags that can automate some of the interactions.

:- set_prolog_flag(bio_db_pl_from_zip, user).
:- set_prolog_flag(bio_db_del_zip, user).

In both cases the recognised values for the flags are: [user,true,false]. User is for prompting the user and true is progressing with an implicit yes answer. The first flag automates conversion from .pl.zip to .pl (which will be the case for the first time you access any dataset if you have installed bio_db_repo), and the second controls the deletion of the zip file once the .pl file has been created.

As of version 4.0 there are 91 associated data predicates serving 55444729 records.

Thanks to Jan Wielemaker for a retractall fix and for code for fast loading of precompiled fact bases (and indeed for the changes in SWI that made this possible).

author: - nicos angelopoulos
version: - 0.5 2016/09/11; - 0.7 2016/10/21, experimenting with distros in github; - 0.9 2017/03/10, small changes for pack(requires) -> pack(lib) v1.1; - 1.0 2017/10/09, to coincide with ppdp paper presentation; - 2.1 2018/11/27, introduces cells and mouse data (and fixed dependency of 2.0); - 2.4 2019/04/02, test: bio_db_stats, new mouse db predicates, iface: bio_db_data_predicate/4; - 2.5 2019/04/22, edge_strg_symb/4; bio_db_organism/1,2; go_id/2,3; - 2.6 2019/05/08, changed to organism alias interface; evidence in gont maps; - 2.7 2019/05/12, edge_strg_symb/4 -> org_edge_strg_symb/4; - 3.0 2019/05/15, paper submission; - 3.1 2020/03/09, fixed lib; no unigene; - 3.2 2020/09/18, include mouse ense + fixes/updates on building scripts; - 3:4 2021/05/10, removed edge_gont_includes/2 (reciprocal of is_a), and edge_gont_consists_of/2 (reciprocal of part_of/2); - 3:6 2021/12/04, fixed pack_errors and map_ense_mouse_enst_chrl/5; bio_db_stats.pl version 0.2; - 4:1 2022/12/29, huge re-config of data predicate names + reac-tome (maps) + chicken; - 4:2 2023/06/06, support for pig; - 4:3 2023/10/05, mult for multi organisms; vgnc database; ncbi taxonomy db; build-reorganisation; - 4:4 2024/04/05, db(ncbi) preds were complete rehaul, better and more complete db(reactome) support, fixed pig cells; - 4:5 2024/04/05, fixed certificate issue when downloading individual files of bio_db_repo; - 4:6 2024/10/17, gg7w for loghorn chicken, hgnc change of base URL; - 4:7 2025/3/28, reactome predicate in sus scrofa; missing is_symbol/2 for chicken and pig; - 4:8 2026/6/18, updates to a number of download URLs :vgnc, cgnc & ense; factor out code for vgnc (multi+pig)
See also: - doc/Releases.txt for version details; - bio_db_data_predicate/4 for a way to enumerate all data predicates; - cell/ for the definitions of the data predicates
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