Maximum spliced alignment overhang in STAR output

Question

[sradio91]

Hi hello, I am working with STAR and I 'am looking at the SPLICE JUNCTION (SJ.out.tab) output, I do not understand the meaning of the column line 9: maximum spliced alignment overhang

Column 9: maximum spliced alignment overhang

I compute the distribution of the column 9 values for reads of 100 bp, getting ranges from 50 to 12:

311 50
340 49
292 48
266 47
 --------
196 14
263 13
355 12

So I am not sure what this number means. I was expecting to get the value 50 as a minimum and maximum of 99....Can someone explain to me the real meaning of this column???!

THANKS!

Answer 1

[Jeffin Rockey]

There is an explanation from STAR author in a related discussion here. Hope it helps.

[sradio91]

Thank you very much Jeffin, that is the answer that I was looking for!