Is it possible to convert BAM file from one genome assembly to the other? I Have multiple BAM files that are referenced to UCSC genome assembly GRCh37/hg19 that are read in different time frames. Now, I am planning a different studies that require assembling all the data against one assembly. Will it be possible to convert all the BAM files that I have to an upgraded version or convert the assembly to a different new assembly and how?
I am new in this and not a bioinformatician so, if you have any questions regarding my question to answer you can ask, any type of help is highly appreciated.
It is possible, with tools like CrossMap, but my recommendation is to re-align. Assemblies can change a lot between versions and your reads will undoubdedly align differently. Re-aligning is cheap, it will take a few days and you're good. Re-doing your analysis because you realize the coordinate translation messed something up will cost you much more time and energy.