hvantk-resource-hgnc

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HGNC gene nomenclature lookup table — authoritative human gene symbols, IDs, and cross-references keyed by hgnc_id.

bigbio By bigbio schedule Updated 6/2/2026
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name: hvantk:resource-hgnc description: HGNC gene nomenclature lookup table — authoritative human gene symbols, IDs, and cross-references keyed by hgnc_id. status: provisional backend: hail domain: mapping

HGNC

Read hvantk/skills/_conventions/SKILL.md first. This skill assumes its repository map, helpers, keying conventions, builder pattern, and validation contract.

1. Status & scope

Provisional. Covers the HGNC complete-set TSV → Hail Table builder used as the canonical human-gene lookup across hvantk (gene-symbol ↔ HGNC ID ↔ Ensembl/Entrez/UniProt mapping; symbol-history resolution).

Out of scope for this skill (per _conventions § 11):

  • Downloading the raw file. See hvantk/skills/hgnc/cli.py (download_dataset lifecycle entry point; CLI hvantk hgnc-download).
  • Cross-resource mapping logic. Lives in hvantk/skills/hgnc/streamers.py (HGNCGeneCatalogStreamer, which absorbed the retired GeneMapper).
  • Downstream consumers (ClinGen/GenCC streamers, gene-symbol resolution in PSROC). Those reference the built table by path.

2. Source identity

HGNC = HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee. The complete-set TSV is the authoritative reference for current approved human gene symbols, IDs, and curated cross-references.

Catalog gap: HGNC is not yet registered in any plugin's catalog/datasets.json or in hvantk/resources/registry/genomics/datasets.json (verified 2026-05-10; re-check with hvantk catalog search HGNC). Until it is, the URL/version constants live in hvantk/skills/hgnc/shared/constants.py (HGNC_DOWNLOAD_URL, HGNC_INFO_URL). Do not restate them here. When HGNC is added to the catalog, drop this paragraph and reference the catalog entry.

Stable provider notes the catalog will not capture:

  • HGNC publishes a single rolling "complete set" (no dated versions in the URL); freshness is determined by the file's HTTP Last-Modified header.
  • The TSV uses \N for missing in some columns and empty strings in others; both are treated as missing on import (see § 4).

3. Backend choice + reasoning

hail. Although HGNC is small (~43k rows) and _conventions § 3 allows pandas for mapping tables, every current consumer (HGNCGeneCatalogStreamer, the ClinGen/GenCC gene-disease streamers, PSROC pipeline) joins it against Hail Tables, so producing a Hail Table avoids redundant materialization at every join site.

4. Raw format & gotchas

  • File: tab-separated, single header row, ~50 columns. Header confirmed in hvantk/skills/hgnc/tests/testdata/raw/hgnc/hgnc_test_sample.tsv.
  • Imported with hl.import_table(impute=False, missing="") — all fields stay as strings; no type inference is attempted.
  • Field renaming is driven by HGNC_GENE_FIELDS (hvantk/skills/hgnc/shared/constants.py). Notable renames: symbol → gene_symbol, name → gene_name, refseq_accession → refseq_id, orphanet → orphanet_id, date_approved_reserved → date_approved. The builder only renames fields that are present in the input; columns absent from the upstream file are silently skipped.
  • Pipe-separated multi-value fields are split into array<str> after renaming. The list of fields treated this way is HGNC_PIPE_SEPARATED_FIELDS. Empty/absent values become [], not missing.
  • status filter: by default the builder keeps only rows where status == "Approved". Pass include_withdrawn=True to keep symbols, entry-withdrawn rows, etc. Withdrawn rows often have a populated hgnc_id but missing cross-references — joining to them silently produces nulls.
  • Symbol history: prev_symbols and alias_symbols are needed to resolve legacy gene symbols. Downstream resolvers (e.g., HGNCGeneCatalogStreamer.resolve_symbol) walk these arrays — do not strip them when selecting --fields.
  • The builder does not strip the HGNC: prefix from hgnc_id (e.g., key is "HGNC:1100", not "1100"). Streamers that ingest other sources (ClinGen, GenCC) explicitly strip the HGNC: prefix on their side before joining, so this asymmetry matters — see hvantk/core/streamers/gene_disease_table.py (GeneDiseaseTableStreamer) and the per-plugin subclasses in hvantk/skills/clingen/streamers.py / hvantk/skills/gencc/streamers.py.

5. Output contract

Hail Table keyed by hgnc_id (string, with HGNC: prefix preserved). Builder returns an AnnotationTable (hvantk.core.models.AnnotationTable) wrapping the Hail Table with provenance (schema_id="hgnc-lookup-v1"). Schema is the source of truth — see hvantk/skills/hgnc/tests/snapshots/schema.json (declared in plugin.yaml; not yet seeded — regenerate via --regenerate-snapshots on first round-trip run).

Summary: one row per approved gene (≈43k in the live release; 5 in the fixture). Row fields fall into core identifiers (hgnc_id, gene_symbol, gene_name, status), symbol history arrays (alias_symbols, alias_names, prev_symbols, prev_names), cross-reference IDs (ensembl_gene_id, entrez_id, uniprot_ids, refseq_id, ucsc_id, ccds_id), classification (locus_group, locus_type, gene_group), location (location, location_sortable), clinical links (omim_id, orphanet_id, gencc, mane_select), and audit dates. Pipe-separated multi-value fields are arrays; the rest are scalars (mostly tstr).

6. hvantk integration points

  • Plugin manifest: hvantk/skills/hgnc/plugin.yaml (the loader auto-resolves the dataset via get_registry().get_dataset("hgnc:lookup"); drives hvantk drift hgnc:lookup).
  • Builder: build_hgnc_gene_lookup in hvantk/skills/hgnc/builder.py. Signature is build_hgnc_gene_lookup(parsed_input, ctx, *, include_withdrawn=False, fields=None) -> AnnotationTable. It builds the table inline with hl.import_table + renames + pipe-field splitting (no _create_table_base, no output_path/overwrite kwargs).
  • CLI: hvantk reprocess hgnc:lookup --raw-dir <dir> --output <path>.ht. Builder kwargs (include_withdrawn, fields) flow through --plugin-arg key=value. Top-level builds run through run_builder_for_spec in hvantk/core/plugin/run_builder.py.
  • Constants: HGNC_GENE_FIELDS, HGNC_PIPE_SEPARATED_FIELDS, HGNC_DOWNLOAD_URL, HGNC_INFO_URL in hvantk/skills/hgnc/shared/constants.py.
  • Downloader: hvantk/skills/hgnc/cli.py (download_dataset lifecycle entry point, wired via plugin.yaml lifecycle.download; CLI command hvantk hgnc-download via the cli: block).
  • Streamer: HGNCGeneCatalogStreamer in hvantk/skills/hgnc/streamers.py (subclass of GeneCatalogStreamer in hvantk/core/streamers/gene_catalog.py; validates the table is keyed by hgnc_id and absorbs the retired GeneMapper/gene_aliases logic).
  • Existing tests: hvantk/skills/hgnc/tests/test_downloader.py and test_drift_probe.py. The snapshot round-trip test (see § 9) is declared in plugin.yaml but not yet seeded; create it on first round-trip run.
  • Downstream consumers (read-only): the ClinGen/GenCC streamers in hvantk/skills/clingen/streamers.py and hvantk/skills/gencc/streamers.py (over GeneDiseaseTableStreamer), and hvantk/algorithms/psroc/pipeline.py.

7. Workflow steps

When invoked to build, refresh, or extend the HGNC table:

  1. Confirm the raw file is present. If absent, point the user at hvantk hgnc-download --output <path>; do not attempt to download from inside this workflow.
  2. Verify the header. head -1 the TSV and confirm every key in HGNC_GENE_FIELDS either exists or is acceptably missing. New upstream columns are non-breaking; missing expected columns mean the upstream schema drifted — stop and surface the diff.
  3. Build the table by calling build_hgnc_gene_lookup(parsed_input, ctx, include_withdrawn=…, fields=…) (Python API) or hvantk reprocess hgnc:lookup --raw-dir <dir> --output <path>.ht [--plugin-arg include_withdrawn=true] [--plugin-arg fields=…] (CLI). The builder constructs the table inline and returns an AnnotationTable; checkpointing/output is handled by the reprocess pipeline, not the builder.
  4. Sanity-check the output. Confirm the table is keyed by hgnc_id, row count is in the expected range (43k approved; +5k if --include-withdrawn), and pipe-separated fields are arrays — not strings — for at least one known multi-value gene (e.g., BRCA1 → alias_symbols contains BRCC1).
  5. Run the snapshot round-trip test (§ 9). If snapshots do not yet exist, create them with pytest … --regenerate-snapshots, review the diff, and commit alongside the builder change.
  6. Do not modify the HGNC: prefix on hgnc_id keys. Downstream code relies on the prefix being preserved here and stripped at the join site.

8. Update playbook

Triggered when HGNC publishes an updated complete-set file or when an upstream schema change surfaces.

  1. Re-download the raw TSV (hvantk hgnc-download --overwrite). Capture the new Last-Modified header in the PR description — that is the de-facto version handle.
  2. Diff the new TSV header against the previous fixture header (diff <(head -1 old.tsv) <(head -1 new.tsv)). New columns alone are non-breaking — they will not appear in the built table unless added to HGNC_GENE_FIELDS. Removed/renamed columns require updating HGNC_GENE_FIELDS (and possibly HGNC_PIPE_SEPARATED_FIELDS).
  3. If the test fixture (hvantk/skills/hgnc/tests/testdata/raw/hgnc/hgnc_test_sample.tsv) is no longer representative (e.g., a tested gene was withdrawn, a new pipe-separated field was added), regenerate it from the live file by sub-sampling the same gene set (HGNC:1100, HGNC:1101, HGNC:4641, plus a withdrawn row to exercise include_withdrawn).
  4. Re-run the round-trip test with --regenerate-snapshots. Expected diffs: new optional columns added to the schema; widened pipe-separated arrays; refreshed date_modified values in sample_rows.json. Unexpected diffs: changed hgnc_id keys, missing core fields (gene_symbol, ensembl_gene_id), changed status semantics — investigate before committing.
  5. Update the catalog entry once it exists (see § 2). Until then, no version-string update is required because the URL is stable.
  6. Re-run the plugin test suite (pytest hvantk/skills/hgnc/tests -m hail) to confirm streamer-side invariants still hold.

9. Validation contract

Declared in plugin.yaml's tests: block (all paths plugin-relative under hvantk/skills/hgnc/):

  • fixture: tests/testdata/raw/hgnc/hgnc_test_sample.tsv
  • schema_snapshot: tests/snapshots/schema.json
  • row_snapshot: tests/snapshots/sample_rows.json
  • drift_fingerprint: tests/drift_fingerprint.json
  • test_command: pytest hvantk/skills/hgnc/tests -m hail

The snapshot directory and round-trip test file are declared but not yet created — initial run uses pytest … --regenerate-snapshots to seed them, per _conventions § 8.

Snapshot status: tests/snapshots/schema.json and tests/snapshots/sample_rows.json have NOT yet been seeded for this plugin. On first round-trip run in a hail-enabled environment, use --regenerate-snapshots to bootstrap them, then commit. Until seeded, the round-trip test cannot verify output against a fixed schema.

Install via CLI
npx skills add https://github.com/bigbio/hvantk --skill hvantk-resource-hgnc
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