pylocuszoom 0.8.0

Publication-ready regional association plots with LD coloring, gene tracks, and recombination overlays

pyLocusZoom

Designed for publication-ready GWAS visualization with regional association plots, gene tracks, eQTL, PheWAS, fine-mapping, and forest plots.

Inspired by LocusZoom and locuszoomr.

Features

1. Regional association plot:

   • Multi-species support: Built-in reference data for Canis lupus familiaris (CanFam3.1/CanFam4) and Felis catus (FelCat9), or optionally provide your own for any species
   • LD coloring: SNPs colored by linkage disequilibrium (R²) with lead variant
   • Gene tracks: Annotated gene/exon positions below the association plot
   • Recombination rate: Optional overlay across region (Canis lupus familiaris built-in, not shown in example image)
   • SNP labels (matplotlib): Automatic labeling of top SNPs by p-value (RS IDs)
   • Hover tooltips (Plotly and Bokeh): Detailed SNP data on hover

Regional association plot with LD coloring, gene/exon track, and top SNP labels (recombination overlay disabled in example).

2. Stacked plots: Compare multiple GWAS/phenotypes vertically
3. eQTL plot: Expression QTL data aligned with association plots and gene tracks
4. Fine-mapping plots: Visualize SuSiE credible sets with posterior inclusion probabilities
5. PheWAS plots: Phenome-wide association study visualization across multiple phenotypes
6. Forest plots: Meta-analysis effect size visualization with confidence intervals
7. Multiple backends: matplotlib (publication-ready), plotly (interactive), bokeh (dashboard integration)
8. Pandas and PySpark support: Works with both Pandas and PySpark DataFrames for large-scale genomics data
9. Convenience data file loaders: Load and validate common GWAS, eQTL and fine-mapping file formats
10. Automatic gene annotations: Fetch gene/exon data from Ensembl REST API with caching (human, mouse, rat, canine, feline, and any Ensembl species)

Installation

pip install pylocuszoom

Or with uv:

uv add pylocuszoom

Or with conda (Bioconda):

conda install -c bioconda pylocuszoom

Quick Start

from pylocuszoom import LocusZoomPlotter

# Initialize plotter (loads reference data for canine)
plotter = LocusZoomPlotter(species="canine")

# Create regional plot
fig = plotter.plot(
    gwas_df,                    # DataFrame with ps, p_wald, rs columns
    chrom=1,
    start=1000000,
    end=2000000,
    lead_pos=1500000,           # Highlight lead SNP
)

fig.savefig("regional_plot.png", dpi=150)

Full Example

from pylocuszoom import LocusZoomPlotter

plotter = LocusZoomPlotter(
    species="canine",                   # or "feline", or None for custom
    plink_path="/path/to/plink",        # Optional, auto-detects if on PATH
)

fig = plotter.plot(
    gwas_df,
    chrom=1,
    start=1000000,
    end=2000000,
    lead_pos=1500000,
    ld_reference_file="genotypes.bed",  # For LD calculation
    genes_df=genes_df,                  # Gene annotations
    exons_df=exons_df,                  # Exon annotations
    show_recombination=True,            # Overlay recombination rate
    snp_labels=True,                    # Label top SNPs
    label_top_n=5,                      # How many to label
    pos_col="ps",                       # Column name for position
    p_col="p_wald",                     # Column name for p-value
    rs_col="rs",                        # Column name for SNP ID
    figsize=(12, 8),
)

Genome Builds

The default genome build for canine is CanFam3.1. For CanFam4 data:

plotter = LocusZoomPlotter(species="canine", genome_build="canfam4")

Recombination maps are automatically lifted over from CanFam3.1 to CanFam4 coordinates using the UCSC liftOver chain file.

Using with Other Species

# Feline (LD and gene tracks, user provides recombination data)
plotter = LocusZoomPlotter(species="feline")

# Custom species (provide all reference data)
plotter = LocusZoomPlotter(
    species=None,
    recomb_data_dir="/path/to/recomb_maps/",
)

# Or provide data per-plot
fig = plotter.plot(
    gwas_df,
    chrom=1, start=1000000, end=2000000,
    recomb_df=my_recomb_dataframe,
    genes_df=my_genes_df,
)

Automatic Gene Annotations

pyLocusZoom can automatically fetch gene annotations from Ensembl for any species:

# Enable automatic gene fetching
plotter = LocusZoomPlotter(species="human", auto_genes=True)

# No need to provide genes_df - fetched automatically
fig = plotter.plot(gwas_df, chrom=13, start=32000000, end=33000000)

Supported species aliases: human, mouse, rat, canine/dog, feline/cat, or any Ensembl species name. Data is cached locally for fast subsequent plots. Maximum region size is 5Mb (Ensembl API limit).

Backends

pyLocusZoom supports multiple rendering backends (set at initialization):

# Static publication-quality plot (default)
plotter = LocusZoomPlotter(species="canine", backend="matplotlib")
fig = plotter.plot(gwas_df, chrom=1, start=1000000, end=2000000)
fig.savefig("plot.png", dpi=150)

# Interactive Plotly (hover tooltips, pan/zoom)
plotter = LocusZoomPlotter(species="canine", backend="plotly")
fig = plotter.plot(gwas_df, chrom=1, start=1000000, end=2000000)
fig.write_html("plot.html")

# Interactive Bokeh (dashboard-ready)
plotter = LocusZoomPlotter(species="canine", backend="bokeh")
fig = plotter.plot(gwas_df, chrom=1, start=1000000, end=2000000)

Backend	Output	Best For	Features
matplotlib	Static PNG/PDF/SVG	Publication-ready figures	Full feature set with SNP labels
plotly	Interactive HTML	Web reports, exploration	Hover tooltips, pan/zoom
bokeh	Interactive HTML	Dashboard integration	Hover tooltips, pan/zoom

Note: All backends support scatter plots, gene tracks, recombination overlay, and LD legend. SNP labels (auto-positioned with adjustText) are matplotlib-only; interactive backends use hover tooltips instead.

Stacked Plots

Compare multiple GWAS results vertically with shared x-axis:

fig = plotter.plot_stacked(
    [gwas_height, gwas_bmi, gwas_whr],
    chrom=1,
    start=1000000,
    end=2000000,
    panel_labels=["Height", "BMI", "WHR"],
    genes_df=genes_df,
)

Stacked plot comparing two phenotypes with LD coloring and shared gene track.

eQTL Overlay

Add expression QTL data as a separate panel:

eqtl_df = pd.DataFrame({
    "pos": [1000500, 1001200, 1002000],
    "p_value": [1e-6, 1e-4, 0.01],
    "gene": ["BRCA1", "BRCA1", "BRCA1"],
})

fig = plotter.plot_stacked(
    [gwas_df],
    chrom=1, start=1000000, end=2000000,
    eqtl_df=eqtl_df,
    eqtl_gene="BRCA1",
    genes_df=genes_df,
)

eQTL overlay with effect direction (up/down triangles) and magnitude binning.

Fine-mapping Visualization

Visualize SuSiE or other fine-mapping results with credible set coloring:

finemapping_df = pd.DataFrame({
    "pos": [1000500, 1001200, 1002000, 1003500],
    "pip": [0.85, 0.12, 0.02, 0.45],  # Posterior inclusion probability
    "cs": [1, 1, 0, 2],               # Credible set assignment (0 = not in CS)
})

fig = plotter.plot_stacked(
    [gwas_df],
    chrom=1, start=1000000, end=2000000,
    finemapping_df=finemapping_df,
    finemapping_cs_col="cs",
    genes_df=genes_df,
)

Fine-mapping visualization with PIP line and credible set coloring (CS1/CS2).

PheWAS Plots

Visualize associations of a single variant across multiple phenotypes:

phewas_df = pd.DataFrame({
    "phenotype": ["Height", "BMI", "T2D", "CAD", "HDL"],
    "p_value": [1e-15, 0.05, 1e-8, 1e-3, 1e-10],
    "category": ["Anthropometric", "Anthropometric", "Metabolic", "Cardiovascular", "Lipids"],
})

fig = plotter.plot_phewas(
    phewas_df,
    variant_id="rs12345",
    category_col="category",
)

PheWAS plot showing associations across phenotype categories with significance threshold.

Forest Plots

Create forest plots for meta-analysis visualization:

forest_df = pd.DataFrame({
    "study": ["Study A", "Study B", "Study C", "Meta-analysis"],
    "effect": [0.45, 0.52, 0.38, 0.46],
    "ci_lower": [0.30, 0.35, 0.20, 0.40],
    "ci_upper": [0.60, 0.69, 0.56, 0.52],
    "weight": [25, 35, 20, 100],
})

fig = plotter.plot_forest(
    forest_df,
    variant_id="rs12345",
    weight_col="weight",
)

Forest plot with effect sizes, confidence intervals, and weight-proportional markers.

PySpark Support

For large-scale genomics data, convert PySpark DataFrames with to_pandas() before plotting:

from pylocuszoom import LocusZoomPlotter, to_pandas

# Convert PySpark DataFrame (optionally sampled for very large data)
pandas_df = to_pandas(spark_gwas_df, sample_size=100000)
fig = plotter.plot(pandas_df, chrom=1, start=1000000, end=2000000)

Install PySpark support: uv add pylocuszoom[spark]

Loading Data from Files

pyLocusZoom includes loaders for common GWAS, eQTL, and fine-mapping file formats:

from pylocuszoom import (
    # GWAS loaders
    load_gwas,           # Auto-detect format
    load_plink_assoc,    # PLINK .assoc, .assoc.linear, .qassoc
    load_regenie,        # REGENIE .regenie
    load_bolt_lmm,       # BOLT-LMM .stats
    load_gemma,          # GEMMA .assoc.txt
    load_saige,          # SAIGE output
    # eQTL loaders
    load_gtex_eqtl,      # GTEx significant pairs
    load_eqtl_catalogue, # eQTL Catalogue format
    # Fine-mapping loaders
    load_susie,          # SuSiE output
    load_finemap,        # FINEMAP .snp output
    # Gene annotations
    load_gtf,            # GTF/GFF3 files
    load_bed,            # BED files
)

# Auto-detect GWAS format from filename
gwas_df = load_gwas("results.assoc.linear")

# Or use specific loader
gwas_df = load_regenie("ukb_results.regenie")

# Load gene annotations
genes_df = load_gtf("genes.gtf", feature_type="gene")
exons_df = load_gtf("genes.gtf", feature_type="exon")

# Load eQTL data
eqtl_df = load_gtex_eqtl("GTEx.signif_pairs.txt.gz", gene="BRCA1")

# Load fine-mapping results
fm_df = load_susie("susie_output.tsv")

Data Formats

GWAS Results DataFrame

Required columns (names configurable via pos_col, p_col, rs_col):

Column	Type	Required	Description
ps	int	Yes	Genomic position in base pairs (1-based). Must match coordinate system of genes/recombination data.
p_wald	float	Yes	Association p-value (0 < p ≤ 1). Values are -log10 transformed for plotting.
rs	str	No	SNP identifier (e.g., "rs12345" or "chr1:12345"). Used for labeling top SNPs if snp_labels=True.

Example:

gwas_df = pd.DataFrame({
    "ps": [1000000, 1000500, 1001000],
    "p_wald": [1e-8, 1e-6, 0.05],
    "rs": ["rs123", "rs456", "rs789"],
})

Genes DataFrame

Column	Type	Required	Description
chr	str or int	Yes	Chromosome identifier. Accepts "1", "chr1", or 1. The "chr" prefix is stripped for matching.
start	int	Yes	Gene start position (bp, 1-based). Transcript start for strand-aware genes.
end	int	Yes	Gene end position (bp, 1-based). Must be ≥ start.
gene_name	str	Yes	Gene symbol displayed in track (e.g., "BRCA1", "TP53"). Keep short for readability.

Example:

genes_df = pd.DataFrame({
    "chr": ["1", "1", "1"],
    "start": [1000000, 1050000, 1100000],
    "end": [1020000, 1080000, 1150000],
    "gene_name": ["GENE1", "GENE2", "GENE3"],
})

Exons DataFrame (optional)

Provides exon/intron structure. If omitted, genes are drawn as simple rectangles.

Column	Type	Required	Description
chr	str or int	Yes	Chromosome identifier.
start	int	Yes	Exon start position (bp).
end	int	Yes	Exon end position (bp).
gene_name	str	Yes	Parent gene symbol. Must match gene_name in genes DataFrame.

Recombination DataFrame

Column	Type	Required	Description
pos	int	Yes	Genomic position (bp). Should span the plotted region with reasonable density (every ~10kb).
rate	float	Yes	Recombination rate in centiMorgans per megabase (cM/Mb). Typical range: 0-50 cM/Mb.

Example:

recomb_df = pd.DataFrame({
    "pos": [1000000, 1010000, 1020000],
    "rate": [0.5, 2.3, 1.1],
})

Recombination Map Files

When using recomb_data_dir, files must be named chr{N}_recomb.tsv (e.g., chr1_recomb.tsv, chrX_recomb.tsv).

Format: Tab-separated with header row:

Column	Description
chr	Chromosome number (without "chr" prefix)
pos	Position in base pairs
rate	Recombination rate (cM/Mb)
cM	Cumulative genetic distance (optional, not used for plotting)

chr	pos	rate	cM
1	10000	0.5	0.005
1	20000	1.2	0.017
1	30000	0.8	0.025

Reference Data

Canine recombination maps are downloaded from Campbell et al. 2016 on first use.

To manually download:

from pylocuszoom import download_canine_recombination_maps

download_canine_recombination_maps()

Logging

Logging uses loguru and is configured via the log_level parameter (default: "INFO"):

# Suppress logging
plotter = LocusZoomPlotter(log_level=None)

# Enable DEBUG level for troubleshooting
plotter = LocusZoomPlotter(log_level="DEBUG")

Requirements

• Python >= 3.10
• matplotlib >= 3.5.0
• pandas >= 1.4.0
• numpy >= 1.21.0
• loguru >= 0.7.0
• plotly >= 5.0.0
• bokeh >= 3.8.2
• kaleido >= 0.2.0 (for plotly static export)
• pyliftover >= 0.4 (for CanFam4 coordinate liftover)
• PLINK 1.9 (for LD calculations) - must be on PATH or specify plink_path

Optional:

• pyspark >= 3.0.0 (for PySpark DataFrame support) - uv add pylocuszoom[spark]

Documentation

• User Guide - Comprehensive documentation with API reference
• Architecture - Design decisions and component overview
• Example Notebook - Interactive tutorial
• CHANGELOG - Version history

License

GPL-3.0-or-later