week 06 Questions
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## a) **What are SAM/BAM files? What is the difference between to the two?**

SAM/BAM files contain sequencing reads that are mapped to a reference.
SAM files are human-readable, BAM files are the binary and compressed
equivalent to SAM files.

SAM (Sequence Alignment/Map)  
- human readable - plain text - header with metadata - large file size

BAM (Binary Alignment/Map) - binary - compressed - small file size -
suitable for large-scale analysis

## b) **`samtools`is a popular program for working with alignment data. What are three common tasks that this software is used for?**

Samtools can 1.) convert between SAM and BAM file formats using the
command `samtools view`, 2.) sort alignments by their chromosomal
coordinates using the command `samtools sort`, and 3.) merge multiple
BAM files into a single file, usdeful when combining data from different
sequencing runs, using the command `samtools merge`.

## c) **Why might you want to visualize alignment data and what are two program that can be used for this?**

Visualizing alignment data is important for quality control (read
quality, misaligned reads) and variant discovery (hihglight areas with
variants, insertions/deletions), among other uses. Two programs that can
be used for this are:

**Samtools** The samtools suite allows a quick visualization of
alignments using the `samtools tview` command directly in the terminal
window. This is good for quick ‘sneak peaks’ but is a terminal output,
so can’t be saved, shared, or made pretty.

**Integrated Genomics Viewer (IGV)** Integrated Genomics Viewer (IGV) is
a GUI Java application that allows you to view genomic data at multiple
levels, from the whole genome to individual nucleotides.

## d) **Describe what VCF file is?**

A Variant Call Format (VCF) file is a text file that stores information
about genetic variations, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms
(SNPs), insertions, deletions, and structural variants. Each variant in
a VCF file is represented by a set of fields, including its genomic
position, reference allele, alternate allele(s), quality scores, and
annotations. VCF files may also contain information about the samples
from which the variants were called, such as genotype calls and read
depth.