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Tools

129 tools across 16 categories, all pulled as BioContainer / public images on first use. This page is auto-generated from registry/tools/ by scripts/gen_docs.py.

Most-used tools · citations in 2021–2025

Ranked by how many papers cited each tool's canonical reference in the last 5 full years — a rough proxy for current adoption. Counts are a lower bound on real use (not everyone cites), and older tools have had longer to accrue totals. Source: Europe PMC.

# Tool Category Cites 2021–2025 Total
1 deseq2 deg 52,540 72,197
2 star rnaseq_align 29,078 41,990
3 starsolo single_cell 29,078 41,990
4 bowtie2 alignment 25,521 43,646
5 mafft comparative_genomics 19,262 31,071
6 edger deg 19,177 33,219
7 bwa alignment 18,313 36,991
8 fastp qc 17,361 19,916
9 subread rnaseq_align 15,592 21,327
10 bedtools alignment 13,559 22,804
11 bcftools variant_calling 10,492 11,759
12 samtools alignment 10,492 11,759
13 minimap2 alignment 10,215 12,265
14 iqtree comparative_genomics 9,802 11,112
15 prokka struct_annot 9,722 14,442

Note: 9 tools show n/a because their registry PMID points to an unrelated paper (author/year mismatch); those references are pending correction. Counts are shown only for PMIDs whose author + year match the cited work.

alignment (6)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
bedtools 2.31.1 quay.io/biocontainers/bedtools:2.31.1--h13024bc_3 Quinlan & Hall 2010, PMID 20110278 22,804 13,559
bowtie2 2.5.5 staphb/bowtie2:2.5.5 Langmead & Salzberg 2012, PMID 22388286 43,646 25,521
bwa 0.7.19 quay.io/biocontainers/bwa:0.7.19--h577a1d6_1 Li & Durbin 2009, PMID 19451168 36,991 18,313
bwa_mem2 2.3 quay.io/biocontainers/bwa-mem2:2.3--he70b90d_0 Vasimuddin 2019, PMID 31355760 n/a n/a
minimap2 2.31 quay.io/biocontainers/minimap2:2.31--h118bc1c_0 Li 2018, PMID 29750242 12,265 10,215
samtools 1.23.1 quay.io/biocontainers/samtools:1.23.1--ha83d96e_0 Danecek 2021, PMID 33590861 11,759 10,492

assembly (16)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
abyss 2.3.10 quay.io/biocontainers/abyss:2.3.10--h4a2768f_3 Jackman 2017, PMID 28232478 477 311
canu 2.3 quay.io/biocontainers/canu:2.3--h3fb4750_2 Koren 2017, PMID 28298431 5,808 3,918
flye 2.9.6 quay.io/biocontainers/flye:2.9.6--py313h7fbb527_1 Kolmogorov 2019, PMID 30936562 4,601 3,951
hifiasm 0.25.0 quay.io/biocontainers/hifiasm:0.25.0--h5ca1c30_0 Cheng 2021, PMID 33526886 5,591 5,013
masurca 4.1.4 quay.io/biocontainers/masurca:4.1.4--ha5bb246_1 Zimin 2017, PMID 28130360 363 224
medaka 2.2.2 quay.io/biocontainers/medaka:2.2.2--py312h3050eb1_0 Oxford Nanopore Technologies, https://github.com/nanoporetech/medaka n/a n/a
megahit 1.2.9 quay.io/biocontainers/megahit:1.2.9--h2e03b76_1 Li 2015, PMID 25609793 6,572 5,226
nextdenovo 2.5.2 quay.io/biocontainers/nextdenovo:2.5.2--py311hc29ee83_7 Hu 2024, PMID 38671502 364 303
nextpolish 1.4.1 quay.io/biocontainers/nextpolish:1.4.1--h3952c39_7 Hu 2020, PMID 31778144 979 912
pilon 1.24 quay.io/biocontainers/pilon:1.24--hdfd78af_0 Walker 2014, PMID 25409509 7,420 5,166
racon 1.5.0 quay.io/biocontainers/racon:1.5.0--h21ec9f0_2 Vaser 2017, PMID 28100585 2,476 1,921
raven 1.8.3 quay.io/biocontainers/raven-assembler:1.8.3--h5ca1c30_3 Vaser & Sikic 2021, PMID 38217213 360 317
shasta 0.14.0 quay.io/biocontainers/shasta:0.14.0--h9948957_0 Shafin 2020, PMID 32686750 424 370
spades 4.2.0 staphb/spades:4.2.0 Prjibelski 2020, PMID 32559359 2,447 2,199
unicycler 0.5.1 quay.io/biocontainers/unicycler:0.5.1--py312hdcc493e_5 Wick 2017, PMID 28594827 6,765 5,353
verkko 2.3.2 quay.io/biocontainers/verkko:2.3.2--hb0edd9e_0 Rautiainen 2023, PMID 36797493 302 275

assembly_qc (8)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
bandage 0.9.0 staphb/bandage:0.9.0 Wick 2015, PMID 26099265 2,190 1,623
busco 6.1.0 quay.io/biocontainers/busco:6.1.0--pyhdfd78af_1 Manni 2021, PMID 34320186 5,713 5,173
checkm2 1.1.0 quay.io/biocontainers/checkm2:1.1.0--pyh7e72e81_1 Chklovski 2023, PMID 37500759 1,011 783
compleasm 0.2.8 quay.io/biocontainers/compleasm:0.2.8--pyh106432d_0 Huang & Li 2023, PMID 37758247 260 210
genovi 0.4.3 staphb/genovi:0.4.3 Cumsille et al. 2023, PMID 37014908 80 71
gfastats 1.3.11 quay.io/biocontainers/gfastats:1.3.11--h077b44d_0 Formenti 2022, PMID 35799367 1,395 1,188
merqury 1.3 quay.io/biocontainers/merqury:1.3--hdfd78af_1 Rhie 2020, PMID 32928274 3,771 3,358
quast 5.3.0 staphb/quast:5.3.0 Mikheenko 2018, PMID 29949969 1,175 969

comparative_genomics (14)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
abricate 1.4.0 staphb/abricate:1.4.0 Seemann T, ABRicate, https://github.com/tseemann/abricate n/a n/a
cafe5 5.1.0 quay.io/biocontainers/cafe:5.1.0--h5ca1c30_1 Mendes et al. 2021, PMID 33325497 n/a n/a
diamond 2.2.2 quay.io/biocontainers/diamond:2.2.2--he361c42_0 Buchfink 2021, PMID 33828273 3,993 3,476
fastani 1.34 staphb/fastani:1.34 Jain et al. 2018, PMID 30504855 4,164 3,481
fasttree 2.2.0 quay.io/biocontainers/fasttree:2.2.0--h7b50bb2_1 Price 2010, PMID 20224823 n/a n/a
iqtree 2.4.0 staphb/iqtree2:2.4.0 Minh et al. 2020, PMID 32011700 11,112 9,802
mafft 7.526 staphb/mafft:7.526 Katoh & Standley 2013, PMID 23329690 31,071 19,262
mash 2.3 quay.io/biocontainers/mash:2.3--hb105d93_10 Ondov 2016, PMID 27323842 2,452 1,753
muscle 5.3 quay.io/biocontainers/muscle:5.3--h9948957_3 Edgar 2022, PMID 36379955 n/a n/a
panaroo 1.8.0 quay.io/biocontainers/panaroo:1.8.0--pyhdfd78af_0 Tonkin-Hill 2020, PMID 32698896 980 857
roary 3.13.0 staphb/roary:3.13.0 Page et al. 2015, PMID 26198102 4,460 3,099
scoary 1.6.16 quay.io/biocontainers/scoary:1.6.16--py_2 Brynildsrud 2016, PMID 27887642 564 405
skani 0.3.2 quay.io/biocontainers/skani:0.3.2--h79ce301_0 Shaw & Yu 2023, PMID 37735570 134 111
trimal 1.5.1 quay.io/biocontainers/trimal:1.5.1--h9948957_0 Capella-Gutierrez 2009, PMID 19505945 n/a n/a

deg (3)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
deseq2 1.50.2 quay.io/biocontainers/bioconductor-deseq2:1.50.2--r45ha27e39d_0 Love 2014, PMID 25516281 72,197 52,540
edger 4.8.2 quay.io/biocontainers/bioconductor-edger:4.8.2--r45h01b2380_0 Robinson 2010, PMID 19910308 33,219 19,177
limma_voom 3.66.0 quay.io/biocontainers/bioconductor-limma:3.66.0--r45h01b2380_0 Law 2014, PMID 24485249 5,022 2,919

enrichment (4)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
clusterprofiler 4.18.4 quay.io/biocontainers/bioconductor-clusterprofiler:4.18.4--r45hdfd78af_0 Wu 2021, PMID 34557778 9,455 8,823
enrichr 1.3.0 quay.io/biocontainers/gseapy:1.3.0--py311heb3b1e3_0 Kuleshov 2016, PMID 27141961 8,495 6,133
gseapy 1.3.0 quay.io/biocontainers/gseapy:1.3.0--py311heb3b1e3_0 Fang 2023, PMID 36426870 786 678
topgo 2.62.0 quay.io/biocontainers/bioconductor-topgo:2.62.0--r45hdfd78af_0 Alexa & Rahnenfuhrer 2010, https://bioconductor.org/packages/topGO/ n/a n/a

epigenomics (8)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
bismark 0.25.1 quay.io/biocontainers/bismark:0.25.1--hdfd78af_0 Krueger & Andrews 2011, PMID 21493656 4,233 2,442
deeptools 3.5.6 quay.io/biocontainers/deeptools:3.5.6--pyhdfd78af_0 Ramirez et al. 2016, PMID 27079975 6,683 5,101
homer 5.1 quay.io/biocontainers/homer:5.1--pl5321hc52dbad_1 Heinz et al. 2010, PMID 20513432 11,236 6,361
macs3 3.0.4 quay.io/biocontainers/macs3:3.0.4--py310h5a5e57a_0 Zhang et al. 2008, PMID 18798982 15,276 8,484
methylkit 1.36.0 quay.io/biocontainers/bioconductor-methylkit:1.36.0--r45ha27e39d_0 Akalin et al. 2012, PMID 23034086 1,664 1,012
methylpy 1.4.7 quay.io/biocontainers/methylpy:1.4.7--py39h0ae133c_0 Schultz 2015, PMID 26030523 554 224
picard 3.4.0 quay.io/biocontainers/picard:3.4.0--hdfd78af_0 Broad Institute, https://broadinstitute.github.io/picard/ n/a n/a
tobias 0.17.3 quay.io/biocontainers/tobias:0.17.3--py39hff726c5_1 Bentsen et al. 2020, PMID 32848148 569 520

func_annot (10)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
antismash 8.0.4 antismash/standalone:8.0.4 Blin 2023, PMID 37140036 1,591 1,399
dbcan 5.2.9 quay.io/biocontainers/dbcan:5.2.9--pyhdfd78af_0 Zhang 2018, PMID 29771380 1,662 1,342
dram 1.5.0 quay.io/biocontainers/dram:1.5.0--pyhdfd78af_0 Shaffer 2020, PMID 32766782 n/a n/a
eggnog_mapper 2.1.15 quay.io/biocontainers/eggnog-mapper:2.1.15--pyhdfd78af_0 Cantalapiedra 2021, PMID 34597405 3,330 2,904
funannotate 1.8.17 quay.io/biocontainers/funannotate:1.8.17--pyhdfd78af_5 Palmer & Stajich 2020, funannotate (Zenodo) n/a n/a
gecco 0.10.3 quay.io/biocontainers/gecco:0.10.3--pyhdfd78af_1 Larralde 2021, GECCO (bioRxiv 10.1101/2021.05.03.442509) n/a n/a
gtdbtk 2.7.2 quay.io/biocontainers/gtdbtk:2.7.2--pyhdfd78af_0 Chaumeil 2022, PMID 36218463 1,455 1,201
interproscan 5.59_91.0 quay.io/biocontainers/interproscan:5.59_91.0--hec16e2b_1 Blum 2021, PMID 33156333 1,736 1,643
kofamscan 1.3.0 quay.io/biocontainers/kofamscan:1.3.0--hdfd78af_2 Aramaki 2020, PMID 31742321 n/a n/a
pfam_scan 1.6 quay.io/biocontainers/pfam_scan:1.6--hdfd78af_5 Mistry 2021, PMID 33125078 n/a n/a

metagenomics (10)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
bracken 3.1 quay.io/biocontainers/bracken:3.1--h9948957_0 Lu et al. 2017, PMID 28655956 n/a n/a
humann3 3.9 quay.io/biocontainers/humann:3.9--py312hdfd78af_0 Beghini et al. 2021, PMID 33944776 1,715 1,553
kneaddata 0.12.4 quay.io/biocontainers/kneaddata:0.12.4--pyhdfd78af_0 McIver et al. 2018, PMID 31616210 n/a n/a
kraken2 2.1.6 quay.io/biocontainers/kraken2:2.1.6--pl5321h077b44d_0 Wood et al. 2019, PMID 31779668 4,969 4,333
krona 2.8.1 staphb/krona:2.8.1 Ondov 2011, PMID 21961884 1,382 763
lefse 1.1.2 quay.io/biocontainers/lefse:1.1.2--pyhdfd78af_0 Segata et al. 2011, PMID 21702898 11,286 7,340
maxbin2 2.2.7 quay.io/biocontainers/maxbin2:2.2.7--h503566f_8 Wu 2016, PMID 26515820 2,059 1,583
metabat2 2.18 quay.io/biocontainers/metabat2:2.18--h38e344b_2 Kang 2019, PMID 31388474 2,893 2,505
metaphlan4 4.2.4 quay.io/biocontainers/metaphlan:4.2.4--pyhdfd78af_0 Blanco-Miguez et al. 2023, PMID 36823356 1,019 840
sourmash 4.9.4 quay.io/biocontainers/sourmash:4.9.4--hdfd78af_0 Brown & Irber 2016, sourmash (JOSS 10.21105/joss.00027) n/a n/a

proteomics (8)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
comet 2024.02.0 quay.io/biocontainers/comet-ms:2026011--h9ee0642_0 Eng 2013, PMID 23148064 1,275 734
fragpipe ⚠️ deprecated 22.0 fcyu/fragpipe:22.0 Yu et al. 2020, PMID 33338430 n/a n/a
maxquant ⚠️ deprecated 2.4.14.0 quay.io/biocontainers/maxquant:2.4.14.0--hdfd78af_0 Cox & Mann 2008, PMID 19029910 12,649 5,648
msconvert 3.0.24238 chambm/pwiz-skyline-i-agree-to-the-vendor-licenses:latest Chambers et al. 2012, PMID 23051804 3,182 2,060
msfragger ⚠️ deprecated 4.1 fcyu/msfragger:4.1 Kong et al. 2017, PMID 28394336 1,964 1,617
openms 3.5.0 quay.io/biocontainers/openms:3.5.0--h78fb946_0 Rost 2016, PMID 27575624 501 317
percolator 3.9 quay.io/biocontainers/percolator:3.9--h0f90025_0 Kall et al. 2007, PMID 17952086 1,951 924
xtandem 15.12.15.2 quay.io/biocontainers/xtandem:15.12.15.2--h4464bbb_11 Craig & Beavis 2004, PMID 14976030 1,931 322

qc (9)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
cutadapt 5.2 quay.io/biocontainers/cutadapt:5.2--py312hfabe715_2 Martin 2011, doi:10.14806/ej.17.1.200 n/a n/a
fastp 1.3.6 quay.io/biocontainers/fastp:1.3.6--h43da1c4_0 Chen 2018, PMID 30423086 19,916 17,361
fastqc 0.12.1 quay.io/biocontainers/fastqc:0.12.1--hdfd78af_0 Andrews S, 2010 (Babraham Bioinformatics) n/a n/a
filtlong 0.3.1 quay.io/biocontainers/filtlong:0.3.1--h077b44d_0 Wick 2021 (github.com/rrwick/Filtlong) n/a n/a
multiqc 1.35 quay.io/biocontainers/multiqc:1.35--pyhdfd78af_1 Ewels 2016, PMID 27312411 7,946 6,478
nanoplot 1.47.1 quay.io/biocontainers/nanoplot:1.47.1--pyhdfd78af_0 De Coster 2023, PMID 37171891 575 456
seqkit 2.13.0 quay.io/biocontainers/seqkit:2.13.0--he881be0_0 Shen 2016, PMID 27706213 2,560 2,194
seqtk r93 quay.io/biocontainers/seqtk:r93--0 Li, seqtk (github.com/lh3/seqtk) n/a n/a
trimgalore 0.6.11 quay.io/biocontainers/trim-galore:0.6.11--hdfd78af_0 Krueger 2015, https://github.com/FelixKrueger/TrimGalore n/a n/a

repeat (3)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
earlgrey 7.2.6 quay.io/biocontainers/earlgrey:7.2.6--hc52dbad_0 Baril 2024, PMID 38577785 169 128
repeatmasker 4.1.7 dfam/tetools:1.89 Smit 2015 (repeatmasker.org) n/a n/a
repeatmodeler 2.0.5 dfam/tetools:1.89 Flynn 2020, PMID 32300014 3,090 2,788

rnaseq_align (8)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
hisat2 2.2.2 quay.io/biocontainers/hisat2:2.2.2--h503566f_0 Kim 2019, PMID 31375807 10,968 9,680
htseq 2.1.2 quay.io/biocontainers/htseq:2.1.2--py311h483b626_2 Anders 2015, PMID 25260700 n/a n/a
kallisto 0.52.0 quay.io/biocontainers/kallisto:0.52.0--h13ff97a_0 Bray 2016, PMID 27043002 7,856 5,298
rsem 1.3.3 quay.io/biocontainers/rsem:1.3.3--pl5321h077b44d_12 Li & Dewey 2011, PMID 21816040 16,258 9,456
salmon 2.3.1 quay.io/biocontainers/salmon:2.3.1--hfa8f182_0 Patro 2017, PMID 28263959 9,687 7,499
star 2.7.11b quay.io/biocontainers/star:2.7.11b--h43eeafb_0 Dobin 2013, PMID 23104886 41,990 29,078
stringtie 3.0.3 quay.io/biocontainers/stringtie:3.0.3--h29c0135_0 Pertea 2015, PMID 25690850 10,134 7,701
subread 2.1.1 quay.io/biocontainers/subread:2.1.1--h577a1d6_0 Liao 2014, PMID 24227677 21,327 15,592

single_cell (8)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
bustools 0.45.1 quay.io/biocontainers/bustools:0.45.1--h6f0a7f7_0 Melsted 2019, PMID 31073610 122 108
cellranger 9.0.1 litd/docker-cellranger:v9.0.1 Zheng et al. 2017, PMID 28091601 5,666 4,102
harmony 2.0.0 quay.io/biocontainers/harmonypy:2.0.0--py310hd766df8_1 Korsunsky 2019, PMID 31740819 7,697 6,723
monocle3 1.4.26 quay.io/biocontainers/r-monocle3:1.4.26--r44h9948957_0 Cao et al. 2019, PMID 30787392 426 371
scanpy 1.12.2 ghcr.io/hope9901/bioflow-scanpy:1.12.2 Wolf et al. 2018, PMID 29409532 6,692 5,617
scrublet 0.2.3 quay.io/biocontainers/scrublet:0.2.3--pyh5e36f6f_1 Wolock 2019, PMID 30954476 2,184 1,854
seurat 5.5.1 satijalab/seurat:5.5.1 Hao et al. 2024, PMID 37231261 3,602 2,821
starsolo 2.7.11b quay.io/biocontainers/star:2.7.11b--h43eeafb_0 Dobin et al. 2013, PMID 23104886 41,990 29,078

struct_annot (6)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
augustus 3.5.0 quay.io/biocontainers/augustus:3.5.0--pl5321h9716f88_9 Stanke 2008, PMID 18218656 1,990 1,263
bakta 1.12.0 quay.io/biocontainers/bakta:1.12.0--pyhdfd78af_0 Schwengers 2021, PMID 34739369 919 792
braker3 3.1.1 teambraker/braker3:v3.1.1 Gabriel 2024, PMID 38866550 487 370
liftoff 1.6.3 quay.io/biocontainers/liftoff:1.6.3--pyhdfd78af_0 Shumate & Salzberg 2021, PMID 33320174 733 669
prokka 1.14.6 staphb/prokka:1.14.6 Seemann 2014, PMID 24642063 14,442 9,722
trnascan_se 2.0.12 quay.io/biocontainers/trnascan-se:2.0.12--pl5321h7b50bb2_2 Chan 2021, PMID 34417604 n/a n/a

variant_calling (8)

Tool Version Image Citation Total cites Cites 2021–2025
bcftools 1.23.1 quay.io/biocontainers/bcftools:1.23.1--hb2cee57_0 Danecek 2021, PMID 33590861 11,759 10,492
deepvariant 1.10.0 google/deepvariant:1.10.0 Poplin 2018, PMID 30247488 n/a n/a
delly 2.3.0 quay.io/biocontainers/delly:2.3.0--h3752d28_0 Rausch 2012, PMID 22962449 n/a n/a
ensembl_vep 116.0 quay.io/biocontainers/ensembl-vep:116.0--pl5321h2a3209d_0 McLaren 2016, PMID 27268795 n/a n/a
freebayes 1.3.10 quay.io/biocontainers/freebayes:1.3.10--hbefcdb2_0 Garrison & Marth 2012, arXiv:1207.3907 n/a n/a
gatk4 4.6.2.0 quay.io/biocontainers/gatk4:4.6.2.0--py310hdfd78af_1 McKenna 2010, PMID 20644199 16,785 7,994
snpeff 5.4.0c quay.io/biocontainers/snpeff:5.4.0c--hdfd78af_0 Cingolani 2012, PMID 22728672 9,399 5,402
vcftools 0.1.17 quay.io/biocontainers/vcftools:0.1.17--pl5321h077b44d_0 Danecek 2011, PMID 21653522 n/a n/a