The following table is a quick cheat sheet identifying the genomic coordinate conventions used at different sites, file formats, etc. I welcome corrections and additions in the comments. I'll add them to the companion sheet as time allows.
A more detailed description of genome coordinate systems can be found in my earlier
post. Note that in this table, I consider
zero-based, half-open coordinate conventions to be equivalent to
space-counted, zero-start and so do not distinguish them in the table.
Name |
Resource Type |
Chromosome |
0 vs 1 |
Space vs Base |
Notes |
UCSC Genome Browser |
Genome Browser |
chr1, chr2, .. chrX, chrY, chrM |
1 |
Base |
Note that when zooming in on the genome browser, the positioning of the tick marks appears to use a space-counted, 0-start convention. As discussed here, this is not the intention. To get the 1-based position, the base coordinate corresponds to the tick mark to its immediate right.
|
NCBI Map Viewer |
Genome Browser |
1, 2, .. X, Y, MT |
1 |
Base |
|
Ensembl Location Viewer |
Genome Browser |
1, 2, .. X, Y, MT |
1 |
Base |
|
UCSC BLAT |
Web Tool |
chr1, chr2, .. chrX, chrY, chrM |
1 |
Base |
|
NCBI BLAST |
Web Tool |
chr1, chr2, .. chrX, chrY, chrMT |
1 |
Base |
|
UCSC Table Browser |
Web Tool |
chr1, chr2, .. chrX, chrY, chrM |
0 |
Space |
Output formats are all 0-space formats. However, when specifying the region field is 1-base format. |
BED Format |
File Format |
chr1, chr2, .. chrX, chrY, chrM |
0 |
Space |
|
WIG Format |
File Format |
chr1, chr2, .. chrX, chrY, chrM |
1 |
Base |
UCSC's Wiggle Track Format |
Galaxy Interval Format |
File Format |
chr1, chr2, .. chrX, chrY, chrM |
0 |
Space |
|
GFF/GTF/GFF3 Format |
File Format |
Depends on context |
1 |
Base |
Chromosome names depend on resource using the file format |
VCF Format |
File Format |
Depends on context |
1 |
Base |
Chromosome just needs to refer to an identifier in a reference genome or can be a contig id. Position 0 and N+1 (where N = chrom length) are used to refer to telomeres. |
UCSC Annotation Files |
Data File |
chr1, chr2, .. chrX, chrY, chrM |
0 |
Space |
|
Special thanks to John DiCarlo's insights and suggestions!