Open CRAM File
CRAM File Formats and Their Use
The CRAM file format is a standard for storing and retrieving sequence read data, mined primarily from bioinformatics. CRAM files are typically used to reduce the storage space required for genome sequencing data. They provide lossless, reference-based compression which generally takes less than half the space of equivalent BAM files.
Applications That Open CRAM Files
The following are the applications that you can use to open and work with CRAM files. The primary application that opens or uses the CRAM file is the SAMtools software package. Other applications include but not limited to the Broad Institutes Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK) and the Integrative Genomics Viewer (IGV).
Opening and Using CRAM Files with SAMtools
As an example, here's how you can open and use the CRAM file format in SAMtools. First, you will need to install SAMtools. Once it is installed, you can convert CRAM files to BAM files for analysis. The command to use in SAMtools to convert CRAM to BAM is 'samtools view -b -o output.bam input.cram'.
CRAM File Important Information
As a final thought, its important to state that efficient and robust handling of CRAM files is crucial in bioinformatics research. The use of correct software packages and gaining a comprehensive understanding will facilitate seemless interaction and data extraction from CRAM files.