/salmon-rna-quantification

name: "salmon-rna-quantification"
description: "Ultra-fast RNA-seq transcript/gene quantification via quasi-mapping (no BAM). Builds a k-mer index from transcriptome FASTA, quantifies in minutes. Outputs TPM/count tables (quant.sf) with optional GC- and sequence-bias correction. Integrates with tximeta/tximport for DESeq2/edgeR. Use STAR when a genome-aligned BAM is needed."
license: "GPL-3.0"

Salmon — Fast RNA-seq Quantification

Overview

Salmon quantifies transcript abundance from RNA-seq reads using quasi-mapping — matching reads to a k-mer index of the transcriptome without full genome alignment. This makes Salmon 20–50× faster than alignment-based tools while producing accurate TPM and estimated count values. Salmon corrects for sequence-specific bias (`--seqBias`), GC-content bias (`--gcBias`), and fragment length distribution automatically. Output `quant.sf` files integrate directly with `tximeta` (R) or `pydeseq2` (Python) for differential expression analysis. For improved accuracy, decoy-aware indexing uses the full genome to identify spurious quasi-mappings.

When to Use

• Performing fast RNA-seq quantification when you do not need a genome-aligned BAM file
• Running large-scale RNA-seq studies where alignment speed is a bottleneck (Salmon is 20-50× faster than STAR + featureCounts)
• Computing TPM and estimated counts from bulk RNA-seq for differential expression with DESeq2 or edgeR
• Correcting for GC bias, fragment length, and sequence context bias with `--gcBias --seqBias`
• Estimating transcript-level uncertainty via bootstrap resampling with `--numBootstraps`
• Use **STAR** instead when you need a genome-aligned BAM for downstream tools (variant calling, deeptools, IGV visualization)
• Use **Kallisto** as an alternative for similar speed; Salmon provides better bias correction and decoy-aware indexing

Prerequisites

• **Software**: Salmon ≥ 1.10 (conda or pre-compiled binary)
• **Reference**: transcriptome FASTA (cDNA sequences, e.g., GENCODE or Ensembl) + genome FASTA for decoy-aware indexing
• **Python packages**: `pandas` for parsing output; `pydeseq2` for differential expression

> **Check before installing**: The tool may already be available in the current environment (e.g., inside a `pixi` / `conda` env). Run `command -v salmon` first and skip the install commands below if it returns a path. When running inside a pixi project, invoke the tool via `pixi run salmon` rather than bare `salmon`.

# Install with conda (recommended)
conda install -c bioconda salmon

# Verify
salmon --version
# salmon 1.10.3

# Or download pre-compiled binary
wget https://github.com/COMBINE-lab/salmon/releases/download/v1.10.0/salmon-1.10.0_linux_x86_64.tar.gz
tar xzvf salmon-1.10.0_linux_x86_64.tar.gz
export PATH="$PWD/salmon-latest_linux_x86_64/bin:$PATH"

Quick Start

# 1. Build transcriptome index (~5 min)
salmon index -t transcriptome.fa -i salmon_index/ -p 8

# 2. Quantify paired-end reads (~2-5 min per sample)
salmon quant \
    -i salmon_index/ \
    -l A \
    -1 sample_R1.fastq.gz \
    -2 sample_R2.fastq.gz \
    -p 8 \
    --gcBias --validateMappings \
    -o results/sample1/

# Output: results/sample1/quant.sf
head results/sample1/quant.sf

Workflow

Step 1: Download Transcriptome Reference

Fetch a transcript FASTA from GENCODE or Ensembl (cDNA sequences only — not genome).

# Human transcriptome from GENCODE (recommended)
wget https://ftp.ebi.ac.uk/pub/databases/gencode/Gencode_human/release_47/gencode.v47.transcripts.fa.gz
gunzip gencode.v47.transcripts.fa.gz

# Count transcripts
grep -c "^>" gencode.v47.transcripts.fa
# ~252,000 transcripts

echo "Reference ready."
ls -lh gencode.v47.transcripts.fa

Step 2: Build Salmon Index

Index the transcriptome for quasi-mapping. Add genome decoys for improved accuracy.

# Standard index (fast, sufficient for most analyses)
salmon index \
    -t gencode.v47.transcripts.fa \
    -i salmon_index/ \
    -p 8
echo "Standard index complete."

# Decoy-aware index (recommended for accuracy — uses full genome as decoy)
# Step 1: create decoy list from genome chromosome names
grep "^>" GRCh38.primary_assembly.genome.fa | cut -d " " -f 1 | sed 's/>//' > decoys.txt

# Step 2: concatenate transcriptome + genome
cat gencode.v47.transcripts.fa GRCh38.primary_assembly.genome.fa > gentrome.fa

# Step 3: build decoy-aware index
salmon index \
    -t gentrome.fa \
    -d decoys.txt \
    -i salmon_decoy_index/ \
    -p 8
echo "Decoy-aware index complete."

Step 3: Quantify Single-End Reads

Run Salmon on single-end FASTQ files.

# Single-end quantification
salmon quant \
    -i salmon_index/ \
    -l A \
    -r sample1.fastq.gz \
    -p 8 \
    --seqBias \
    --validateMappings \
    -o results/sample1/

echo "Mapping rate: $(grep 'Mapping rate' results/sample1/logs/salmon_quant.log | tail -1)"
echo "Output: results/sample1/quant.sf"

Step 4: Quantify Paired-End Reads with Bias Correction

Run Salmon on paired-end FASTQ files with recommended bias correction flags.

# Paired-end with GC bias + sequence bias correction
salmon quant \
    -i salmon_decoy_index/ \
    -l A \
    -1 sample1_R1.fastq.gz \
    -2 sample1_R2.fastq.gz \
    -p 8 \
    --gcBias \
    --seqBias \
    --validateMappings \
    --numBootstraps 100 \
    -o results/sample1/

# quant.sf columns: Name, Length, EffectiveLength, TPM, NumReads
head results/sample1/quant.sf

Step 5: Load and Summarize Quantification Output

Parse `quant.sf` to build a gene-level count matrix for differential expression.

import pandas as pd
from pathlib import Path

# Load single-sample output
quant = pd.read_csv("results/sample1/quant.sf", sep="\t")
print(f"Transcripts quantified: {len(quant)}")
print(f"Total estimated reads: {quant['NumReads'].sum():.0f}")
print(f"Transcripts with TPM > 1: {(quant['TPM'] > 1).sum()}")
print(quant.sort_values("TPM", ascending=False).head()