sc-grn

sc-grn

When to use

The user has a normalised scRNA AnnData (cluster labels in obs[--cluster-key], default leiden) and wants gene regulatory network inference: TFs → target genes plus per-cell regulon activity scores. Two paths:

• Full SCENIC pipeline (when --tf-list + --db + --motif are all provided): GRNBoost2 co-expression → cisTarget motif enrichment
  • pruning → AUCell scoring per cell. Produces motif-validated regulons; AUCell activity is exposed as per-TF obs["regulon_<TF>"] columns (one float column per regulon) plus tables/grn_auc_matrix.csv.
• Correlation fallback (when external resources are missing AND --allow-simplified-grn is set, or in --demo): adjacency-only output, no motif validation, no AUCell. Useful for sanity checks but NOT a substitute for the full pipeline.

For ligand-receptor / cell-cell communication use sc-cell-communication. For in-silico KO predictions use sc-in-silico-perturbation (which builds a simpler GRN internally).

Inputs & Outputs

Flow

1. Load AnnData (--input) or build a synthetic demo (GRNBoost2-only).
2. Preflight: when running the full pipeline, verify --tf-list / --db / --motif exist; demo / --allow-simplified-grn skip the resource check.
3. Try GRNBoost2 (arboreto) for co-expression adjacencies; if arboreto is not installed OR returns empty, silently fall back to correlation-based adjacencies and record result.json["used_fallback"]=True + fallback_reason.
4. With full resources: run cisTarget motif enrichment + pruning → AUCell scoring per cell.
5. Detect degenerate output (zero regulons / TFs) → write troubleshooting block; do NOT raise.
6. Save tables, figures, processed.h5ad, report.md, result.json.

Gotchas

• Silent fallback to correlation GRN when arboreto is missing or fails. sc_grn.py:631 catches ImportError for arboreto, sets used_fallback=True, fallback_reason="arboreto package not installed"; :639-647 catches general exceptions / empty results with fallback_reason set accordingly. The fallback adjacency-only mode skips motif validation AND AUCell — tables/grn_auc_matrix.csv won't be written. The persisted result.json["used_fallback"] is set in the top-level summary at sc_grn.py:859 (line 696 is inside the run_grn_demo return dict that feeds it).
• --input is parser.error (exit code 2), not ValueError. sc_grn.py:735 calls parser.error("--input required when not using --demo"). Once --input is given, :738 raises FileNotFoundError(f"Input file not found: {input_path}\nProvide a valid preprocessed .h5ad file, or use --demo for a quick test.") for a missing path.
• Full SCENIC needs ALL THREE external resources. --tf-list + --db + --motif must be provided together; the preflight at sc_grn.py:749-758 enforces this unless --demo or --allow-simplified-grn bypasses. Resources must be downloaded separately (cisTarget DBs from https://resources.aertslab.org/cistarget/).
• Two distinct degenerate-output modes. Total failure (result is None): sc_grn.py:805/:826 writes the degenerate-diag block and calls sys.exit(1) at :833 (caller wrappers expecting a 0 exit will see a hard fail). Partial degeneracy (_check_degenerate_output returns a non-None diagnostic with regulons-but-uninformative): the script proceeds to a soft-warn finish and exits 0. Always check result.json["n_regulons"] (line 857) AND the process exit code before chaining downstream.
• processed.h5ad per-regulon obs["regulon_<TF>"] columns only exist when AUCell ran. In the correlation-fallback or no-motif path, processed.h5ad is essentially the input AnnData with contract metadata only — no regulon_* obs columns and no tables/grn_auc_matrix.csv. Downstream skills consuming regulon activity must check for the columns' presence first.
• --cluster-key defaults to leiden. sc_grn.py:716 defaults to leiden. If the AnnData has labels under a different key (e.g., cell_type), pass --cluster-key cell_type so the per-cluster regulon-activity heatmap is meaningful.

Key CLI

# Demo (correlation-based, no external resources)
python omicsclaw.py run sc-grn --demo --output /tmp/sc_grn_demo

# Full SCENIC pipeline with all 3 external resources
python omicsclaw.py run sc-grn \
  --input clustered.h5ad --output results/ \
  --tf-list /refs/cistarget/hsapiens_TFs.txt \
  --db '/refs/cistarget/hg38_*.feather' \
  --motif /refs/cistarget/motifs-v9-nr.hgnc-m0.001-o0.0.tbl \
  --n-jobs 8

# Correlation-only (when SCENIC resources unavailable, explicit opt-in)
python omicsclaw.py run sc-grn \
  --input clustered.h5ad --output results/ \
  --allow-simplified-grn

# Custom cluster key + tighter target budget
python omicsclaw.py run sc-grn \
  --input annotated.h5ad --output results/ \
  --tf-list tf.txt --db '/refs/*.feather' --motif motifs.tbl \
  --cluster-key cell_type --n-top-targets 25

See also

• references/parameters.md — every CLI flag, resource-format conventions
• references/methodology.md — GRNBoost2 → cisTarget → AUCell flow; correlation-fallback semantics
• references/output_contract.md — per-regulon obs["regulon_<TF>"] columns; adjacency / regulon CSV columns
• Adjacent skills: sc-clustering (upstream — produces obs["leiden"]), sc-batch-integration (upstream — integrated embedding for cleaner co-expression), sc-cell-communication (parallel — L-R signalling, NOT TF→target), sc-in-silico-perturbation (parallel — predicts KO effects with a smaller internal GRN), sc-pathway-scoring (parallel — per-cell pathway scores; complementary to AUCell regulon scores)