diff --git a/modules/local/templates/mtx_to_h5ad_kallisto.py b/modules/local/templates/mtx_to_h5ad_kallisto.py
index fab07f59..ac71fc42 100755
--- a/modules/local/templates/mtx_to_h5ad_kallisto.py
+++ b/modules/local/templates/mtx_to_h5ad_kallisto.py
@@ -77,9 +77,7 @@ def input_to_adata(
     # standard format
     # index are gene IDs and symbols are a column
     adata.var['gene_versions'] = adata.var.index
-    adata.var['gene_ids'] = adata.var['gene_versions'].str.split('.').str[0]
-    adata.var.index = adata.var["gene_ids"].values
-    adata.var = adata.var.drop("gene_ids", axis=1)
+    adata.var.index = adata.var['gene_versions'].str.split('.').str[0]
     adata.var_names_make_unique()
 
     # write results
diff --git a/modules/local/templates/mtx_to_h5ad_star.py b/modules/local/templates/mtx_to_h5ad_star.py
index 5614e698..aa0cd02f 100755
--- a/modules/local/templates/mtx_to_h5ad_star.py
+++ b/modules/local/templates/mtx_to_h5ad_star.py
@@ -64,9 +64,7 @@ def input_to_adata(
     # index are gene IDs and symbols are a column
     adata.var["gene_symbol"] = adata.var.index
     adata.var['gene_versions'] = adata.var["gene_ids"]
-    adata.var['gene_ids'] = adata.var['gene_versions'].str.split('.').str[0]
-    adata.var.index = adata.var["gene_ids"].values
-    adata.var = adata.var.drop("gene_ids", axis=1)
+    adata.var.index = adata.var['gene_versions'].str.split('.').str[0]
 
     # write results
     adata.write_h5ad(f"{output}")