Installable skillMIT

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Reusable plotting functions for common omics visualizations. Custom ggplot2/matplotlib implementations of volcano, MA, PCA, enrichment dotplots, boxplots, and survival curves. Use when creating volcano, MA, or enrichment plots.

BY FreedomIntelligenceUPDATED Oct 27, 2026
INTENDED FOR◈OpenClawInstall in a listed agent.

instructions.md

---
name: bio-data-visualization-specialized-omics-plots
description: Reusable plotting functions for common omics visualizations. Custom ggplot2/matplotlib implementations of volcano, MA, PCA, enrichment dotplots, boxplots, and survival curves. Use when creating volcano, MA, or enrichment plots.
tool_type: mixed
primary_tool: ggplot2
measurable_outcome: Execute skill workflow successfully with valid output within 15 minutes.
allowed-tools:
  - read_file
  - run_shell_command
---

<!--
# COPYRIGHT NOTICE
# This file is part of the "Universal Biomedical Skills" project.
# Copyright (c) 2026 MD BABU MIA, PhD <md.babu.mia@mssm.edu>
# All Rights Reserved.
#
# This code is proprietary and confidential.
# Unauthorized copying of this file, via any medium is strictly prohibited.
#
# Provenance: Authenticated by MD BABU MIA

-->


# Specialized Omics Plots

## Scope

This skill provides **reusable plotting functions** for common omics visualizations that can be applied across different analysis types:
- Volcano plots (any DE result)
- MA plots (any log-fold-change data)
- PCA plots (any high-dimensional data)
- Enrichment dotplots (manual, not enrichplot)
- Expression boxplots with statistics
- Survival curves

**For DESeq2/edgeR built-in functions** (plotMA, plotPCA, plotDispEsts), see `differential-expression/de-visualization`.
**For enrichplot-specific functions** (dotplot, cnetplot, emapplot, gseaplot2), see `pathway-analysis/enrichment-visualization`.

## Volcano Plot (R)

```r
library(ggplot2)
library(ggrepel)

volcano_plot <- function(res, fdr = 0.05, lfc = 1, top_n = 10) {
    res <- res %>%
        mutate(
            significance = case_when(
                padj < fdr & log2FoldChange > lfc ~ 'Up',
                padj < fdr & log2FoldChange < -lfc ~ 'Down',
                TRUE ~ 'NS'
            ),
            label = ifelse(rank(padj) <= top_n & significance != 'NS', gene, '')
        )

    ggplot(res, aes(log2FoldChange, -log10(pvalue), color = significance)) +
        geom_point(alpha = 0.6, size = 1.5) +
        geom_text_repel(aes(label = label), color = 'black', size = 3, max.overlaps = 20) +
        scale_color_manual(values = c('Up' = '#E64B35', 'Down' = '#4DBBD5', 'NS' = 'grey60')) +
        geom_vline(xintercept = c(-lfc, lfc), linetype = 'dashed', color = 'grey40') +
        geom_hline(yintercept = -log10(fdr), linetype = 'dashed', color = 'grey40') +
        labs(x = expression(Log[2]~Fold~Change), y = expression(-Log[10]~P-value)) +
        theme_bw() + theme(panel.grid = element_blank())
}
```

## Volcano Plot (Python)

```python
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

def volcano_plot(df, fdr=0.05, lfc=1, ax=None):
    if ax is None:
        fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8, 6))

    sig_up = (df['padj'] < fdr) & (df['log2FoldChange'] > lfc)
    sig_down = (df['padj'] < fdr) & (df['log2FoldChange'] < -lfc)
    ns = ~(sig_up | sig_down)

    ax.scatter(df.loc[ns, 'log2FoldChange'], -np.log10(df.loc[ns, 'pvalue']),
               c='grey', alpha=0.5, s=10, label='NS')
    ax.scatter(df.loc[sig_up, 'log2FoldChange'], -np.log10(df.loc[sig_up, 'pvalue']),
               c='#E64B35', alpha=0.7, s=15, label='Up')
    ax.scatter(df.loc[sig_down, 'log2FoldChange'], -np.log10(df.loc[sig_down, 'pvalue']),
               c='#4DBBD5', alpha=0.7, s=15, label='Down')

    ax.axhline(-np.log10(fdr), ls='--', c='grey', lw=0.8)
    ax.axvline(-lfc, ls='--', c='grey', lw=0.8)
    ax.axvline(lfc, ls='--', c='grey', lw=0.8)

    ax.set_xlabel('Log2 Fold Change')
    ax.set_ylabel('-Log10 P-value')
    ax.legend()
    return ax
```

## MA Plot (R)

```r
ma_plot <- function(res, fdr = 0.05) {
    res <- res %>%
        mutate(significant = padj < fdr & !is.na(padj))

    ggplot(res, aes(log10(baseMean), log2FoldChange, color = significant)) +
        geom_point(alpha = 0.5, size = 1) +
        scale_color_manual(values = c('FALSE' = 'grey60', 'TRUE' = '#E64B35')) +
        geom_hline(yintercept = 0, color = 'black', linewidth = 0.5) +
        labs(x = expression(Log[10]~Mean~Expression), y = expression(Log[2]~Fold~Change)) +
        theme_bw() + theme(panel.grid = element_blank(), legend.position = 'none')
}
```

## PCA Plot (R)

```r
pca_plot <- function(vsd, intgroup = 'condition', ntop = 500) {
    rv <- rowVars(assay(vsd))
    select <- order(rv, decreasing = TRUE)[seq_len(min(ntop, length(rv)))]
    pca <- prcomp(t(assay(vsd)[select, ]))
    percentVar <- round(100 * pca$sdev^2 / sum(pca$sdev^2), 1)

    pca_df <- data.frame(PC1 = pca$x[, 1], PC2 = pca$x[, 2], colData(vsd))

    ggplot(pca_df, aes(PC1, PC2, color = .data[[intgroup]])) +
        geom_point(size = 3) +
        stat_ellipse(level = 0.95, linetype = 'dashed') +
        labs(x = paste0('PC1 (', percentVar[1], '%)'),
             y = paste0('PC2 (', percentVar[2], '%)')) +
        theme_bw() + theme(panel.grid = element_blank())
}
```

## PCA Plot (Python)

```python
from sklearn.decomposition import PCA
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def pca_plot(df, metadata, color_by, ax=None):
    if ax is None:
        fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8, 6))

    pca = PCA(n_components=2)
    pcs = pca.fit_transform(df.T)

    for group in metadata[color_by].unique():
        mask = metadata[color_by] == group
        ax.scatter(pcs[mask, 0], pcs[mask, 1], label=group, alpha=0.8, s=50)

    ax.set_xlabel(f'PC1 ({pca.explained_variance_ratio_[0]*100:.1f}%)')
    ax.set_ylabel(f'PC2 ({pca.explained_variance_ratio_[1]*100:.1f}%)')
    ax.legend()
    return ax
```

## Dotplot for Enrichment (R)

```r
library(ggplot2)

enrichment_dotplot <- function(enrich_result, top_n = 20) {
    df <- enrich_result %>%
        arrange(p.adjust) %>%
        head(top_n) %>%
        mutate(Description = factor(Description, levels = rev(Description)),
               GeneRatio_numeric = sapply(strsplit(GeneRatio, '/'), function(x) as.numeric(x[1])/as.numeric(x[2])))

    ggplot(df, aes(GeneRatio_numeric, Description, size = Count, color = p.adjust)) +
        geom_point() +
        scale_color_gradient(low = '#E64B35', high = '#4DBBD5', trans = 'log10') +
        scale_size_continuous(range = c(3, 10)) +
        labs(x = 'Gene Ratio', y = NULL, color = 'Adj. P-value', size = 'Count') +
        theme_bw() + theme(panel.grid.major.y = element_blank())
}
```

## Boxplot with Statistics (R)

```r
library(ggpubr)

expression_boxplot <- function(df, gene, group_var) {
    ggboxplot(df, x = group_var, y = gene, color = group_var,
              add = 'jitter', palette = 'npg') +
        stat_compare_means(method = 't.test', label = 'p.signif') +
        labs(y = paste0(gene, ' Expression')) +
        theme(legend.position = 'none')
}
```

## UMAP/tSNE Plot (Python)

```python
import scanpy as sc
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def umap_plot(adata, color, ax=None, **kwargs):
    if ax is None:
        fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8, 6))

    sc.pl.umap(adata, color=color, ax=ax, show=False, **kwargs)
    return ax

# With custom styling
sc.pl.umap(adata, color='leiden', palette='tab20', frameon=False,
           title='', legend_loc='on data', legend_fontsize=8)
```

## Correlation Plot (R)

```r
library(corrplot)

cor_mat <- cor(t(top_genes_mat), method = 'pearson')
corrplot(cor_mat, method = 'color', type = 'lower', order = 'hclust',
         tl.col = 'black', tl.cex = 0.7, col = colorRampPalette(c('#4DBBD5', 'white', '#E64B35'))(100))
```

## Violin Plot with Split (R)

```r
ggplot(df, aes(cluster, expression, fill = condition)) +
    geom_split_violin(alpha = 0.7) +
    geom_boxplot(width = 0.2, position = position_dodge(0.5), outlier.shape = NA) +
    scale_fill_manual(values = c('#4DBBD5', '#E64B35')) +
    theme_bw()
```

## Survival Curves (R)

```r
library(survival)
library(survminer)

fit <- survfit(Surv(time, status) ~ group, data = df)
ggsurvplot(fit, data = df, risk.table = TRUE, pval = TRUE,
           palette = c('#4DBBD5', '#E64B35'),
           legend.labs = c('Low', 'High'))
```

## Related Skills

- data-visualization/ggplot2-fundamentals - Base plotting
- data-visualization/color-palettes - Color selection
- differential-expression/de-visualization - DE-specific plots
- pathway-analysis/enrichment-visualization - Enrichment plots


<!-- AUTHOR_SIGNATURE: 9a7f3c2e-MD-BABU-MIA-2026-MSSM-SECURE -->
COMPATIBILITY & REFERENCES

Platform guidance

Imported from the listed AgentSkill.sh category. Complete supplied package files and notices are retained. Required external tools and credentials are not installed. No bundled code was executed during import. Individual agent task behavior has not been tested.