5.1.23. multicov

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# 5.1.23. multicov

`bedtools multicov`, reports the count of alignments from multiple position-sorted and indexed BAM files that overlap intervals in a BED file. Specifically, for each BED interval provided, it reports a separate count of overlapping alignments from each BAM file.

Note

`bedtools multicov` depends upon index BAM files in order to count the number of overlaps in each BAM file. As such, each BAM file should be position sorted (`samtool sort aln.bam aln.sort`) and indexed (`samtools index aln.sort.bam`) with either samtools or bamtools.

## 5.1.23.1. Usage and option summary

Usage:

    bedtools multicov [OPTIONS] -bams BAM1 BAM2 BAM3 ... BAMn -bed  <BED/GFF/VCF>

(or):

    multiBamCov [OPTIONS] -bams BAM1 BAM2 BAM3 ... BAMn -bed  <BED/GFF/VCF>

Option | Description
--- | ---
-split | Treat “split” BAM or BED12 entries as distinct BED intervals.
-s | Require same strandedness. That is, only report hits in B that overlap A on the _same_ strand. By default, overlaps are reported without respect to strand.
-S | Require different strandedness. That is, only report hits in B that overlap A on the _opposite_ strand. By default, overlaps are reported without respect to strand.
-f | Minimum overlap required as a fraction of each A. Default is 1E-9 (i.e., 1bp).
-r | Require that the fraction overlap be reciprocal for A and B. In other words, if -f is 0.90 and -r is used, this requires that B overlap 90% of A and A _also_ overlaps 90% of B.
-q | Minimum mapping quality (MAPQ) allowed. Default is 0.
-D | Include duplicate reads. Default counts non-duplicates only
-F | Include failed-QC reads. Default counts pass-QC reads only
-p | Only count proper pairs. Default counts all alignments with `MAPQ > -q` argument, regardless of the BAM FLAG field.

## 5.1.23.2. Default behavior.

By default, `multicov` will report the count of alignments in each input BAM file that overlap.

    $ cat ivls-of-interest.bed
    chr1 0   10000   ivl1
    chr1 10000   20000   ivl2
    chr1 20000   30000   ivl3
    chr1 30000   40000   ivl4

    $ bedtools multicov -bams aln1.bam aln2.bam aln3.bam -bed ivls-of-interest.bed
    chr1 0       10000   ivl1    100 2234    0
    chr1 10000   20000   ivl2    123 3245    1000
    chr1 20000   30000   ivl3    213 2332    2034
    chr1 30000   40000   ivl4    335 7654    0

The output of `multicov` reflects a distinct report of the overlapping alignments for each record in the `-bed` file. In the example above, each line of the output reflects a) the original line from the `-bed` file followed by b) the count of alignments that overlap the `-bed` interval from each input `-bam` file. In the example above, the output consists of 7 columns: the first four of which are the columns from the `-bed` file and the last 3 are the count of overlapping alignments from the 3 input `-bam` files. The order of the counts reflects the order of the files given on the command line.

Note

`bedtools multicov` will work with a single BAM as well.

    $ bedtools multicov -bams aln1.bam -bed ivls-of-interest.bed
    chr1 0       10000   ivl1    100
    chr1 10000   20000   ivl2    123
    chr1 20000   30000   ivl3    213
    chr1 30000   40000   ivl4    335

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