PhyDOSE: Design of follow-up single-cell sequencing experiments of tumors

Leah L. Weber, Nuraini Aguse, Nicholas Chia, Mohammed El-Kebir

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The combination of bulk and single-cell DNA sequencing data of the same tumor enables the inference of high-fidelity phylogenies that form the input to many important downstream analyses in cancer genomics. While many studies simultaneously perform bulk and single-cell sequencing, some studies have analyzed initial bulk data to identify which mutations to target in a follow-up single-cell sequencing experiment, thereby decreasing cost. Bulk data provide an additional untapped source of valuable information, composed of candidate phylogenies and associated clonal prevalence. Here, we introduce PhyDOSE, a method that uses this information to strategically optimize the design of follow-up single cell experiments. Underpinning our method is the observation that only a small number of clones uniquely distinguish one candidate tree from all other trees. We incorporate distinguishing features into a probabilistic model that infers the number of cells to sequence so as to confidently reconstruct the phylogeny of the tumor. We validate PhyDOSE using simulations and a retrospective analysis of a leukemia patient, concluding that PhyDOSE’s computed number of cells resolves tree ambiguity even in the presence of typical single-cell sequencing errors. We also conduct a retrospective analysis on an acute myeloid leukemia cohort, demonstrating the potential to achieve similar results with a significant reduction in the number of cells sequenced. In a prospective analysis, we demonstrate the advantage of selecting cells to sequence across multiple biopsies and that only a small number of cells suffice to disambiguate the solution space of trees in a recent lung cancer cohort. In summary, PhyDOSE proposes cost-efficient single-cell sequencing experiments that yield high-fidelity phylogenies, which will improve downstream analyses aimed at deepening our understanding of cancer biology.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere1008240
JournalPLoS computational biology
Volume16
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1 2020

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Modeling and Simulation
  • Ecology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics
  • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
  • Computational Theory and Mathematics

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