BaGPipe: an automated, reproducible, and flexible pipeline for bacterial genome-wide association studies
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background
Microbial genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are crucial for linking genetic variation to phenotypic traits in bacteria. However, current tools often involve complex manual processing, limited scalability, and fragmented workflows, which constrain large-scale or routine bacterial GWAS.
Results
We developed BaGPipe, an automated and flexible bacterial GWAS pipeline built using Nextflow and incorporating Pyseer for association analysis. BaGPipe integrates pre-processing, statistical analysis, and downstream visualisation into a unified workflow that is reproducible and easy to deploy across diverse computational environments. BaGPipe was validated on a publicly available dataset of Streptococcus pneumoniae whole-genome sequences, and reproduced published findings with improved computational efficiency. BaGPipe was then applied to a dataset of Staphylococcus aureus whole-genome sequences, successfully identifying known and novel antibiotic resistance associations.
Conclusions
By offering an accessible, efficient, and reproducible platform, BaGPipe accelerates bacterial GWAS and facilitates deeper exploration into the genetic underpinnings of phenotypic traits. BaGPipe is freely available at https://github.com/sanger-pathogens/BaGPipe.
Microbial genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are crucial for linking genetic variation to phenotypic traits in bacteria. However, current tools often involve complex manual processing, limited scalability, and fragmented workflows, which constrain large-scale or routine bacterial GWAS.
Results
We developed BaGPipe, an automated and flexible bacterial GWAS pipeline built using Nextflow and incorporating Pyseer for association analysis. BaGPipe integrates pre-processing, statistical analysis, and downstream visualisation into a unified workflow that is reproducible and easy to deploy across diverse computational environments. BaGPipe was validated on a publicly available dataset of Streptococcus pneumoniae whole-genome sequences, and reproduced published findings with improved computational efficiency. BaGPipe was then applied to a dataset of Staphylococcus aureus whole-genome sequences, successfully identifying known and novel antibiotic resistance associations.
Conclusions
By offering an accessible, efficient, and reproducible platform, BaGPipe accelerates bacterial GWAS and facilitates deeper exploration into the genetic underpinnings of phenotypic traits. BaGPipe is freely available at https://github.com/sanger-pathogens/BaGPipe.
Date Issued
2026-12-01
Date Acceptance
2026-02-26
Citation
BMC Microbiology, 2026, 26 (1)
ISSN
1471-2180
Publisher
BMC
Journal / Book Title
BMC Microbiology
Volume
26
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1186/s12866-026-04909-9
Subjects
GWAS
Nextflow pipeline
Pyseer
Whole genome sequencing
Genome-wide association study
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 441
Date Publish Online
2026-03-27