<p>Among other things, the <code>canon-gff3</code> program in the <a href="https://aegean.readthedocs.io" rel="nofollow noreferrer">AEGeAn Toolkit</a> infers and prints missing features like UTRs.</p>

<pre><code>$ canon-gff3 &lt; genes.gff3 &gt; genes-with-utrs.gff3
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-09T14:36:19.940Z
2019-01-09T14:36:19.940Z
Daniel Standage
<p>You can use the <a href="https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genomes/TOOLS/add_utrs_to_gff/add_utrs_to_gff.py" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><code>add_utrs_to_gff.py</code></a> script provided by NCBI RefSeq for this purpose. Running the script on your example produces the following:</p>

<pre><code>./add_utrs_to_gff.py example.gff3
ctg123  .  gene             1050  9000  .  +  .  ID=gene00001;Name=EDEN
ctg123  .  mRNA             1050  9000  .  +  .  ID=mRNA00001;Parent=gene00001;Name=EDEN.1
ctg123  .  exon             1050  1500  .  +  .  ID=exon00002;Parent=mRNA00001
ctg123  .  exon             3000  3902  .  +  .  ID=exon00003;Parent=mRNA00001
ctg123  .  exon             5000  5500  .  +  .  ID=exon00004;Parent=mRNA00001
ctg123  .  exon             7000  9000  .  +  .  ID=exon00005;Parent=mRNA00001
ctg123  .  CDS              1201  1500  .  +  0  ID=cds00001;Parent=mRNA00001;Name=edenprotein.1
ctg123  .  CDS              3000  3902  .  +  0  ID=cds00001;Parent=mRNA00001;Name=edenprotein.1
ctg123  .  CDS              5000  5300  .  +  0  ID=cds00001;Parent=mRNA00001;Name=edenprotein.1
ctg123  .  five_prime_UTR   1050  1200  .  +  .  ID=utr00002;Parent=mRNA00001
ctg123  .  three_prime_UTR  5301  5500  .  +  .  ID=utr00004;Parent=mRNA00001
ctg123  .  three_prime_UTR  7000  9000  .  +  .  ID=utr00005;Parent=mRNA00001
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-28T15:56:39.460Z
2019-03-28T15:56:39.460Z
vkkodali
<p>Annoyingly, you can load such a GFF3 file into R (using the GenomicFeatures package) and access the UTRs, but they don't then get saved if you use the <code>export</code> function from <code>rtracklayer</code> (this would have been the simplest solution).</p>

<p>Since I don't know of anything to do this off-hand, I spent a couple minutes to <a href="https://github.com/dpryan79/Answers/tree/master/bioinfoSE_3181" rel="nofollow noreferrer">write one</a>. The usage would be <code>addGFF3UTRs.py input.gff output.gff</code>. You can modify a number of the labels to appear as you'd like. This hasn't been extensively tested, but it seems to produce the correct results in a small test I just ran.</p>

<hr>

<p>The code is hosted on GitHub at the link I gave above and I also include it here:</p>

<pre class="lang-python prettyprint-override"><code>#!/usr/bin/env python
import argparse


def parseAttributes(kvps):
    d = dict()
    for kvp in kvps:
        k, v = kvp.split("=")
        d[k] = v
    return d


def parseGFF3(fname, topLevel="gene", secondLevel="mRNA", CDS="CDS", exon="exon"):
    f = open(fname)
    genes = dict()
    transcripts = dict()
    g2t = dict()  # A dictionary with gene IDs associated to their transcript IDs

    for line in f:
        if line.startswith("#"):
            continue
        cols = line.strip().split("\t")
        attribs = parseAttributes(cols[8].split(";"))
        ID = attribs["ID"]

        if cols[2] == topLevel:
            genes[ID] = line
            g2t[ID] = []
        elif cols[2] == secondLevel:
            parent = attribs["Parent"]
            g2t[parent].append(ID)

            # Generate a list of [line, [exon entries], [CDS entries]]
            if ID not in transcripts:
                transcripts[ID] = [line, [], []]
            else:
                transcripts[ID][0] = line
        else:
            parent = attribs["Parent"]
            if parent not in transcripts:
                transcripts[parent] = [None, [], []]
            if cols[2] == exon:
                transcripts[parent][1].append((int(cols[3]), int(cols[4]), line))
            elif cols[2] == CDS:
                transcripts[parent][2].append((int(cols[3]), int(cols[4]), line))
    f.close()

    return genes, transcripts, g2t


def findUTRs(transcripts, fivePrime = True):
    for k, t in transcripts.items():
        # If there are no CDS entries then skip
        if len(t[2]) == 0:
            continue
        # Get the strand ("." will be treated as "+")
        strand = t[0].split("\t")[6]

        # For 3' UTR, just swap the strand
        if not fivePrime:
            strand = "+" if strand == "-" else "-"

        exons = [(s, e) for s, e, _ in t[1]]
        CDSs = [(s, e) for s, e, _ in t[2]]
        exons.sort()
        CDSs.sort()
        UTRs = []
        if strand != "-":
            final = CDSs[0][0]
            for s, e in exons:
                if e &lt; final:
                    UTRs.append((s,e))
                elif s &lt; final:
                    UTRs.append((s, final - 1))
                else:
                    break
        else:
            final = CDSs[-1][-1]
            for s, e in exons:
                if e &lt; final:
                    continue
                elif s &gt; final:
                    UTRs.append((s, e))
                else:
                    UTRs.append((final + 1, e))
        t.append(UTRs)


def saveGFF(oname, genes, transcripts, g2t, fivePrime, threePrime):
    o = open(oname, "w")
    o.write("##gff-version 3\n")
    for geneID, geneLine in genes.items():
        o.write(geneLine)
        # Go through each transcript
        for transID in g2t[geneID]:
            t = transcripts[transID]
            if t[0] is None:
                continue
            o.write(t[0])
            cols = t[0].strip().split("\t")

            # Write the exons, then CDS, then 5'UTR, then 3'UTR
            for exon in t[1]:
                o.write(exon[2])
            for CDS in t[2]:
                o.write(CDS[2])
            for idx, UTR in enumerate(t[3]):
                o.write("{}\t{}\t{}\t{}\t{}\t.\t{}\t.\t".format(cols[0], cols[1], fivePrime, UTR[0], UTR[1], cols[6]))
                o.write("ID={}.fivePrimeUTR{};Parent={}\n".format(transID, idx, transID))
            for idx, UTR in enumerate(t[4]):
                o.write("{}\t{}\t{}\t{}\t{}\t.\t{}\t.\t".format(cols[0], cols[1], threePrime, UTR[0], UTR[1], cols[6]))
                o.write("ID={}.threePrimeUTR{};Parent={}\n".format(transID, idx, transID))
    o.close()


parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Parse a GFF3 file lacking UTR entries and add them in. Note that this program assumes a reasonably formatted GFF3 file")
parser.add_argument("--fiveUTRname", default="five_prime_UTR", help="The label for 5' UTR entries (default: %(default)s)")
parser.add_argument("--threeUTRname", default="three_prime_UTR", help="The label for 3' UTR entries (default: %(default)s)")
parser.add_argument("--topLevelID", default="gene", help="The 'type' designating the top-level entry (default: %(default)s)")
parser.add_argument("--secondLevelID", default="mRNA", help="The 'type' designating the second-level entry, typically something like 'mRNA' or 'transcript' (default: %(default)s)")
parser.add_argument("--exonID", default="exon", help="The 'type' designating exons (default: %(default)s)")
parser.add_argument("--CDSID", default="CDS", help="The 'type' designating CDS (default: %(default)s)")
parser.add_argument("input", metavar="input.gff3", help="Input file name")
parser.add_argument("output", metavar="output.gff3", help="Output file name")
args = parser.parse_args()

genes, transcripts, g2t = parseGFF3(args.input, topLevel=args.topLevelID, secondLevel=args.secondLevelID, exon=args.exonID, CDS=args.CDSID)

# Add the UTRs
findUTRs(transcripts)
findUTRs(transcripts, fivePrime=False)

# Write the output
saveGFF(args.output, genes, transcripts, g2t, args.fiveUTRname, args.threeUTRname)
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-30T13:10:19.320Z
2017-12-31T11:23:34.367Z
2017-12-31T11:23:34.367Z
Devon Ryan
<p>I am working on a GFF file that is missing the 5'UTR and 3'UTR information. For example:</p>

<pre><code>  ctg123 . gene      1050  9000  .  +  .  ID=gene00001;Name=EDEN
  ctg123 . mRNA      1050  9000  .  +  .  ID=mRNA00001;Parent=gene00001;Name=EDEN.1
  ctg123 . exon      1050  1500  .  +  .  ID=exon00002;Parent=mRNA00001
  ctg123 . exon      3000  3902  .  +  .  ID=exon00003;Parent=mRNA00001
  ctg123 . exon      5000  5500  .  +  .  ID=exon00004;Parent=mRNA00001
  ctg123 . exon      7000  9000  .  +  .  ID=exon00005;Parent=mRNA00001
  ctg123 . CDS       1201  1500  .  +  0  ID=cds00001;Parent=mRNA00001;Name=edenprotein.1
  ctg123 . CDS       3000  3902  .  +  0  ID=cds00001;Parent=mRNA00001;Name=edenprotein.1
  ctg123 . CDS       5000  5300  .  +  0  ID=cds00001;Parent=mRNA00001;Name=edenprotein.1
</code></pre>

<p>Is there a way to add rows in the GFF with the 5'UTR and 3'UTR ranges?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-29T17:52:28.283Z
Would we also need to deal with the negative strand? I mean, can you have gff lines referring to the negative strand and, if so, can we assume they will be correct? That the positions will be given with respect to the `+` strand and the end position will be "before" the start one?
terdon
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-29T18:00:52.803Z
yes, we do have to deal with the negative strand, too. Here is just a simplified example.
l0110
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-29T18:44:58.653Z
Then please [edit] your question and include an example of the negative strand as well. We would also need to know if each gff will have a single entry or if you can have multiple genes in the same gff. The more specific information you give us, the likelier it is that we will be able to give you a useful answer. However, bear in mind that UTRs can be spliced, so this is not a good way of getting the information you need. Getting a full annotation from wherever you downloaded this would be better.
terdon
<file-formats><gff3>
Infer missing UTR features in GFF3 file
# Infer missing UTR features in GFF3 file

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-12-29)

I am working on a GFF file that is missing the 5'UTR and 3'UTR information. For example:
  ctg123 . gene      1050  9000  .  +  .  ID=gene00001;Name=EDEN
  ctg123 . mRNA      1050  9000  .  +  .  ID=mRNA00001;Parent=gene00001;Name=EDEN.1
  ctg123 . exon      1050  1500  .  +  .  ID=exon00002;Parent=mRNA00001
  ctg123 . exon      3000  3902  .  +  .  ID=exon00003;Parent=mRNA00001
  ctg123 . exon      5000  5500  .  +  .  ID=exon00004;Parent=mRNA00001
  ctg123 . exon      7000  9000  .  +  .  ID=exon00005;Parent=mRNA00001
  ctg123 . CDS       1201  1500  .  +  0  ID=cds00001;Parent=mRNA00001;Name=edenprotein.1
  ctg123 . CDS       3000  3902  .  +  0  ID=cds00001;Parent=mRNA00001;Name=edenprotein.1
  ctg123 . CDS       5000  5300  .  +  0  ID=cds00001;Parent=mRNA00001;Name=edenprotein.1

Is there a way to add rows in the GFF with the 5'UTR and 3'UTR ranges?

**Tags:** file-formats, gff3
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Would we also need to deal with the negative strand? I mean, can you have gff lines referring to the negative strand and, if so, can we assume they will be correct? That the positions will be given with respect to the `+` strand and the end position will be "before" the start one?  
> **username_0**: yes, we do have to deal with the negative strand, too. Here is just a simplified example.  
> **username_1**: Then please [edit] your question and include an example of the negative strand as well. We would also need to know if each gff will have a single entry or if you can have multiple genes in the same gff. The more specific information you give us, the likelier it is that we will be able to give you a useful answer. However, bear in mind that UTRs can be spliced, so this is not a good way of getting the information you need. Getting a full annotation from wherever you downloaded this would be better.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2017-12-30. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

Annoyingly, you can load such a GFF3 file into R (using the GenomicFeatures package) and access the UTRs, but they don't then get saved if you use the export function from rtracklayer (this would have been the simplest solution).
Since I don't know of anything to do this off-hand, I spent a couple minutes to write one. The usage would be addGFF3UTRs.py input.gff output.gff. You can modify a number of the labels to appear as you'd like. This hasn't been extensively tested, but it seems to produce the correct results in a small test I just ran.

The code is hosted on GitHub at the link I gave above and I also include it here:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import argparse


def parseAttributes(kvps):
    d = dict()
    for kvp in kvps:
        k, v = kvp.split("=")
        d[k] = v
    return d


def parseGFF3(fname, topLevel="gene", secondLevel="mRNA", CDS="CDS", exon="exon"):
    f = open(fname)
    genes = dict()
    transcripts = dict()
    g2t = dict()  # A dictionary with gene IDs associated to their transcript IDs

    for line in f:
        if line.startswith("#"):
            continue
        cols = line.strip().split("\t")
        attribs = parseAttributes(cols[8].split(";"))
        ID = attribs["ID"]

        if cols[2] == topLevel:
            genes[ID] = line
            g2t[ID] = []
        elif cols[2] == secondLevel:
            parent = attribs["Parent"]
            g2t[parent].append(ID)

            # Generate a list of [line, [exon entries], [CDS entries]]
            if ID not in transcripts:
                transcripts[ID] = [line, [], []]
            else:
                transcripts[ID][0] = line
        else:
            parent = attribs["Parent"]
            if parent not in transcripts:
                transcripts[parent] = [None, [], []]
            if cols[2] == exon:
                transcripts[parent][1].append((int(cols[3]), int(cols[4]), line))
            elif cols[2] == CDS:
                transcripts[parent][2].append((int(cols[3]), int(cols[4]), line))
    f.close()

    return genes, transcripts, g2t


def findUTRs(transcripts, fivePrime = True):
    for k, t in transcripts.items():
        # If there are no CDS entries then skip
        if len(t[2]) == 0:
            continue
        # Get the strand ("." will be treated as "+")
        strand = t[0].split("\t")[6]

        # For 3' UTR, just swap the strand
        if not fivePrime:
            strand = "+" if strand == "-" else "-"

        exons = [(s, e) for s, e, _ in t[1]]
        CDSs = [(s, e) for s, e, _ in t[2]]
        exons.sort()
        CDSs.sort()
        UTRs = []
        if strand != "-":
            final = CDSs[0][0]
            for s, e in exons:
                if e < final:
                    UTRs.append((s,e))
                elif s < final:
                    UTRs.append((s, final - 1))
                else:
                    break
        else:
            final = CDSs[-1][-1]
            for s, e in exons:
                if e < final:
                    continue
                elif s > final:
                    UTRs.append((s, e))
                else:
                    UTRs.append((final + 1, e))
        t.append(UTRs)


def saveGFF(oname, genes, transcripts, g2t, fivePrime, threePrime):
    o = open(oname, "w")
    o.write("##gff-version 3\n")
    for geneID, geneLine in genes.items():
        o.write(geneLine)
        # Go through each transcript
        for transID in g2t[geneID]:
            t = transcripts[transID]
            if t[0] is None:
                continue
            o.write(t[0])
            cols = t[0].strip().split("\t")

            # Write the exons, then CDS, then 5'UTR, then 3'UTR
            for exon in t[1]:
                o.write(exon[2])
            for CDS in t[2]:
                o.write(CDS[2])
            for idx, UTR in enumerate(t[3]):
                o.write("{}\t{}\t{}\t{}\t{}\t.\t{}\t.\t".format(cols[0], cols[1], fivePrime, UTR[0], UTR[1], cols[6]))
                o.write("ID={}.fivePrimeUTR{};Parent={}\n".format(transID, idx, transID))
            for idx, UTR in enumerate(t[4]):
                o.write("{}\t{}\t{}\t{}\t{}\t.\t{}\t.\t".format(cols[0], cols[1], threePrime, UTR[0], UTR[1], cols[6]))
                o.write("ID={}.threePrimeUTR{};Parent={}\n".format(transID, idx, transID))
    o.close()


parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Parse a GFF3 file lacking UTR entries and add them in. Note that this program assumes a reasonably formatted GFF3 file")
parser.add_argument("--fiveUTRname", default="five_prime_UTR", help="The label for 5' UTR entries (default: %(default)s)")
parser.add_argument("--threeUTRname", default="three_prime_UTR", help="The label for 3' UTR entries (default: %(default)s)")
parser.add_argument("--topLevelID", default="gene", help="The 'type' designating the top-level entry (default: %(default)s)")
parser.add_argument("--secondLevelID", default="mRNA", help="The 'type' designating the second-level entry, typically something like 'mRNA' or 'transcript' (default: %(default)s)")
parser.add_argument("--exonID", default="exon", help="The 'type' designating exons (default: %(default)s)")
parser.add_argument("--CDSID", default="CDS", help="The 'type' designating CDS (default: %(default)s)")
parser.add_argument("input", metavar="input.gff3", help="Input file name")
parser.add_argument("output", metavar="output.gff3", help="Output file name")
args = parser.parse_args()

genes, transcripts, g2t = parseGFF3(args.input, topLevel=args.topLevelID, secondLevel=args.secondLevelID, exon=args.exonID, CDS=args.CDSID)

# Add the UTRs
findUTRs(transcripts)
findUTRs(transcripts, fivePrime=False)

# Write the output
saveGFF(args.output, genes, transcripts, g2t, args.fiveUTRname, args.threeUTRname)


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-01-09. Score: 4

Among other things, the canon-gff3 program in the AEGeAn Toolkit infers and prints missing features like UTRs.
$ canon-gff3 < genes.gff3 > genes-with-utrs.gff3


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2019-03-28. Score: 1

You can use the add_utrs_to_gff.py script provided by NCBI RefSeq for this purpose. Running the script on your example produces the following:
./add_utrs_to_gff.py example.gff3
ctg123  .  gene             1050  9000  .  +  .  ID=gene00001;Name=EDEN
ctg123  .  mRNA             1050  9000  .  +  .  ID=mRNA00001;Parent=gene00001;Name=EDEN.1
ctg123  .  exon             1050  1500  .  +  .  ID=exon00002;Parent=mRNA00001
ctg123  .  exon             3000  3902  .  +  .  ID=exon00003;Parent=mRNA00001
ctg123  .  exon             5000  5500  .  +  .  ID=exon00004;Parent=mRNA00001
ctg123  .  exon             7000  9000  .  +  .  ID=exon00005;Parent=mRNA00001
ctg123  .  CDS              1201  1500  .  +  0  ID=cds00001;Parent=mRNA00001;Name=edenprotein.1
ctg123  .  CDS              3000  3902  .  +  0  ID=cds00001;Parent=mRNA00001;Name=edenprotein.1
ctg123  .  CDS              5000  5300  .  +  0  ID=cds00001;Parent=mRNA00001;Name=edenprotein.1
ctg123  .  five_prime_UTR   1050  1200  .  +  .  ID=utr00002;Parent=mRNA00001
ctg123  .  three_prime_UTR  5301  5500  .  +  .  ID=utr00004;Parent=mRNA00001
ctg123  .  three_prime_UTR  7000  9000  .  +  .  ID=utr00005;Parent=mRNA00001


---

