Bio::Variation::VariantI(3)

NAME
Bio::Variation::VariantI - Sequence Change SeqFeature abstract class

SYNOPSIS
  #get Bio::Variant::VariantI somehow
  print $var->restriction_changes, "\n";
  foreach $allele ($var->each_Allele) {
      #work on Bio::Variation::Allele objects
  }

DESCRIPTION
This superclass defines common methods to basic sequence changes. The instantiable classes Bio::Variation::DNAMutation, Bio::Variation::RNAChange and Bio::Variation::AAChange use them. See Bio::Variation::DNAMutation, Bio::Variation::RNAChange, and Bio::Variation::AAChange for more information.

These classes store information, heavy computation to detemine allele sequences is done elsewhere.

The database cross-references are implemented as Bio::Annotation::DBLink objects. The methods to access them are defined in Bio::DBLinkContainerI. See Bio::Annotation::DBLink and Bio::DBLinkContainerI for details.

Bio::Variation::VariantI redifines and extends Bio::SeqFeature::Generic for sequence variations. This class describes specific sequence change events. These events are always from a specific reference sequence to something different. See Bio::SeqFeature::Generic for more information.

IMPORTANT: The notion of reference sequence permeates all Bio::Variation classes. This is especially important to remember when dealing with Alleles. In a polymorphic site, there can be a large number of alleles. One of then has to be selected to be the reference allele (allele_ori). ALL the rest has to be passed to the Variant using the method add_Allele, including the mutated allele in a canonical mutation. The IO modules and generated attributes depend on it. They ignore the allele linked to using allele_mut and circulate each Allele returned by each_Allele into allele_mut and calculate the changes between that and allele_ori.

FEEDBACK

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report bugs to the Bioperl bug tracking system to help us keep track
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AUTHOR - Heikki Lehvaslaiho
Email: heikki@ebi.ac.uk Address:

     EMBL Outstation, European Bioinformatics Institute
     Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton
     Cambs. CB10 1SD, United Kingdom

APPENDIX
The rest of the documentation details each of the object methods. Internal methods are usually preceded with a _

  id
 Title   : id
 Usage   : $obj->id
 Function:

           Read only method. Returns the id of the variation object.
           The id is the id of the first DBLink object attached to this object.

 Example :
 Returns : scalar
 Args    : none

  add_Allele
 Title   : add_Allele
 Usage   : $self->add_Allele($allele)
 Function:

            Adds one Bio::Variation::Allele into the list of alleles.
            Note that the method forces the convention that nucleotide
            sequence is in lower case and amino acds are in upper
            case.

 Example :
 Returns : 1 when succeeds, 0 for failure.
 Args    : Allele object

  each_Allele
 Title   : alleles
 Usage   : $obj->each_Allele();
 Function:

             Returns a list of Bio::Variation::Allele objects

 Example :
 Returns : list of Alleles
 Args    : none

  isMutation
 Title   : isMutation
 Usage   : print join('/', $obj->each_Allele) if not $obj->isMutation;
 Function:

           Returns or sets the boolean value indicating that the
           variant descibed is a canonical mutation with two alleles
           assinged to be the original (wild type) allele and mutated
           allele, respectively. If this value is not set, it is
           assumed that the Variant descibes polymorphisms.

 Returns : a boolean

  allele_ori
 Title   : allele_ori
 Usage   : $obj->allele_ori();
 Function:

            Links to and returns the Bio::Variation::Allele object.
            If value is not set, returns false. All other Alleles are
            compared to this.

            Amino acid sequences are stored in upper case characters,
            others in lower case.

 Example :
 Returns : string
 Args    : string

See Bio::Variation::Allele for more.

  allele_mut
 Title   : allele_mut
 Usage   : $obj->allele_mut();
 Function:

             Links to and returns the Bio::Variation::Allele
             object.  Sets and returns the mutated allele sequence.
             If value is not set, returns false.

             Amino acid sequences are stored in upper case characters,
             others in lower case.

 Example :
 Returns : string
 Args    : string

See Bio::Variation::Allele for more.

  length
 Title   : length
 Usage   : $obj->length();
 Function:

            Sets and returns the length of the affected original
            allele sequence.  If value is not set, returns false == 0.

            Value 0 means that the variant position is before the
            start=end sequence position. (Value 1 would denote a point
            mutation). This follows the convension to report an
            insertion (2insT) in equivalent way to a corresponding
            deletion (2delT) (Think about indel polymorpism ATC <=> AC
            where the origianal state is not known ).

 Example :
 Returns : string
 Args    : string

  upStreamSeq
 Title   : upStreamSeq
 Usage   : $obj->upStreamSeq();
 Function:

            Sets and returns upstream flanking sequence string.  If
            value is not set, returns false. The sequence should be
            >=25 characters long, if possible.

 Example :
 Returns : string or false
 Args    : string

  dnStreamSeq
 Title   : dnStreamSeq
 Usage   : $obj->dnStreamSeq();
 Function:

            Sets and returns dnstream flanking sequence string.  If
            value is not set, returns false. The sequence should be
            >=25 characters long, if possible.

 Example :
 Returns : string or false
 Args    : string

  label
 Title   : label
 Usage   : $obj->label();
 Function:

            Sets and returns mutation event label(s).  If value is not
            set, or no argument is given returns false.  Each
            instantiable class needs to implement this method. Valid
            values are listed in 'Mutation event controlled vocabulary' in
            http://www.ebi.ac.uk/mutations/recommendations/mutevent.html.

 Example :
 Returns : string
 Args    : string

  status
 Title   : status
 Usage   : $obj->status()
 Function:

           Returns the status of the sequence change object.
           Valid values are: 'suspected' and 'proven'

 Example : $obj->status('proven');
 Returns : scalar
 Args    : valid string (optional, for setting)

  proof
 Title   : proof
 Usage   : $obj->proof()
 Function:

           Returns the proof of the sequence change object.
           Valid values are: 'computed' and 'experimental'.

 Example : $obj->proof('computed');
 Returns : scalar
 Args    : valid string (optional, for setting)

  region
 Title   : region
 Usage   : $obj->region();
 Function:

            Sets and returns the name of the sequence region type or
            protein domain at this location.  If value is not set,
            returns false.

 Example :
 Returns : string
 Args    : string

  region_value
 Title   : region_value
 Usage   : $obj->region_value();
 Function:

            Sets and returns the name of the sequence region_value or
            protein domain at this location.  If value is not set,
            returns false.

 Example :
 Returns : string
 Args    : string

  region_dist
 Title   : region_dist
 Usage   : $obj->region_dist();
 Function:

            Sets and returns the distance tot the closest region
            (i.e. intro/exon or domain) boundary. If distance is not
            set, returns false.

 Example :
 Returns : integer
 Args    : integer

  numbering
 Title   : numbering
 Usage   : $obj->numbering()
 Function:

           Returns the numbering chema used locating sequnce features.
           Valid values are: 'entry' and 'coding'

 Example : $obj->numbering('coding');
 Returns : scalar
 Args    : valid string (optional, for setting)

  mut_number
 Title   : mut_number
 Usage   : $num = $obj->mut_number;
         : $num = $obj->mut_number($number);
 Function:

           Returns or sets the number identifying the order in which the
           mutation has been issued. Numbers shouldstart from 1.
           If the number has never been set, the method will return ''

           If you want the output from IO modules look nice and, for
           multivariant/allele variations, make sense you better set
           this attribute.

 Returns : an integer

  SeqDiff
 Title   : SeqDiff
 Usage   : $mutobj = $obj->SeqDiff;
         : $mutobj = $obj->SeqDiff($objref);
 Function:

           Returns or sets the link-reference to the umbrella
           Bio::Variation::SeqDiff object.  If there is no link,
           it will return undef

           Note: Adding a variant into a SeqDiff object will
           automatically set this value.

 Returns : an obj_ref or undef

See Bio::Variation::SeqDiff for more information.

  add_DBLink
 Title   : add_DBLink
 Usage   : $self->add_DBLink($ref)
 Function: adds a link object
 Example :
 Returns :
 Args    :

  each_DBLink
 Title   : each_DBLink
 Usage   : foreach $ref ( $self->each_DBlink() )
 Function: gets an array of DBlink of objects
 Example :
 Returns :
 Args    :

  restriction_changes
 Title   : restriction_changes
 Usage   : $obj->restriction_changes();
 Function:

            Returns a string containing a list of restriction
            enzyme changes of form +EcoRI, separated by
            commas. Strings need to be valid restriction enzyme names
            as stored in REBASE. allele_ori and allele_mut need to be assigned.

 Example :
 Returns : string
 Args    : string