diff --git a/pkgs/applications/science/biology/bcftools/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/science/biology/bcftools/default.nix
index cfd72601d1e..db12fc00c87 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/science/biology/bcftools/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/science/biology/bcftools/default.nix
@@ -1,17 +1,18 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, htslib, zlib, bzip2, lzma, perl }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, htslib, zlib, bzip2, lzma, curl, perl, bash }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "${pname}-${version}";
   pname = "bcftools";
-  major = "1.5";
-  version = "${major}.0";
+  version = "1.6";
 
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = "https://github.com/samtools/bcftools/releases/download/${major}/bcftools-${major}.tar.bz2";
-    sha256 = "0093hkkvxmbwfaa7905s6185jymynvg42kq6sxv7fili11l5mxwz";
+    url = "https://github.com/samtools/bcftools/releases/download/${version}/${name}.tar.bz2";
+    sha256 = "10prgmf09a13mk18840938ijqgfc9y92hfc7sa2gcv07ddri0c19";
   };
 
-  buildInputs = [ zlib bzip2 lzma perl ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ perl ];
+
+  buildInputs = [ htslib zlib bzip2 lzma curl ];
 
   makeFlags = [
     "HSTDIR=${htslib}"
@@ -19,6 +20,16 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     "CC=cc"
   ];
 
+  preCheck = ''
+    patchShebangs misc/
+    patchShebangs test/
+    sed -ie 's|/bin/bash|${bash}/bin/bash|' test/test.pl
+  '';
+
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
+  doCheck = true;
+
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     description = "Tools for manipulating BCF2/VCF/gVCF format, SNP and short indel sequence variants";
     license = licenses.mit;
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/science/biology/samtools/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/science/biology/samtools/default.nix
index f8391a2d6b3..640f32671bb 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/science/biology/samtools/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/science/biology/samtools/default.nix
@@ -1,21 +1,30 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, zlib, htslib,  ncurses ? null }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, zlib, htslib, perl, ncurses ? null }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "${pname}-${version}";
   pname = "samtools";
-  major = "1.5";
-  version = "${major}.0";
+  version = "1.6";
 
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = "https://github.com/samtools/samtools/releases/download/${major}/samtools-${major}.tar.bz2";
-    sha256 = "1xidmv0jmfy7l0kb32hdnlshcxgzi1hmygvig0cqrq1fhckdlhl5";
+    url = "https://github.com/samtools/samtools/releases/download/${version}/${name}.tar.bz2";
+    sha256 = "17p4vdj2j2qr3b2c0v4100h6cg4jj3zrb4dmdnd9d9aqs74d4p7f";
   };
 
-  buildInputs = [ zlib ncurses ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ perl ];
+
+  buildInputs = [ zlib ncurses htslib ];
 
   configureFlags = [ "--with-htslib=${htslib}" ]
     ++ stdenv.lib.optional (ncurses == null) "--without-curses";
 
+  preCheck = ''
+    patchShebangs test/
+  '';
+
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
+  doCheck = true;
+
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     description = "Tools for manipulating SAM/BAM/CRAM format";
     license = licenses.mit;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/biology/htslib/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/biology/htslib/default.nix
index 5a08e32e7e9..b3c6d9f26d4 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/biology/htslib/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/biology/htslib/default.nix
@@ -1,22 +1,32 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, zlib, bzip2, lzma, curl }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, zlib, bzip2, lzma, curl, perl }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "${pname}-${version}";
-  version = "${major}.0";
   pname = "htslib";
-  major = "1.5";
+  version = "1.6";
 
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = "https://github.com/samtools/htslib/releases/download/${major}/htslib-${major}.tar.bz2";
-    sha256 = "0bcjmnbwp2bib1z1bkrp95w9v2syzdwdfqww10mkb1hxlmg52ax0";
+    url = "https://github.com/samtools/htslib/releases/download/${version}/${name}.tar.bz2";
+    sha256 = "1jsca3hg4rbr6iqq6imkj4lsvgl8g9768bcmny3hlff2w25vx24m";
   };
 
+  # perl is only used during the check phase.
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ perl ];
+
   buildInputs = [ zlib bzip2 lzma curl ];
 
   configureFlags = "--enable-libcurl"; # optional but strongly recommended
 
   installFlags = "prefix=$(out)";
 
+  preCheck = ''
+    patchShebangs test/
+  '';
+
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
+  doCheck = true;
+
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     description = "A C library for reading/writing high-throughput sequencing data";
     license = licenses.mit;
@@ -25,4 +35,3 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     maintainers = [ maintainers.mimadrid ];
   };
 }
-