<p>Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) facilitates the study of transcriptome diversity in individual cells. Yet, many existing methods lack sensitivity and accuracy. Here we introduce SCALPEL, a Nextflow-based tool to quantify and characterize transcript isoforms from standard 3’ scRNA-seq data. Using synthetic data, SCALPEL demonstrates higher sensitivity and specificity compared to other tools. In real datasets, SCALPEL predictions have a high agreement with other tools and can be experimentally validated. The use of SCALPEL on real datasets reveals novel cell populations undetectable using single-cell gene expression data, confirms known 3’ UTR length changes during cell differentiation, and identifies cell-type specific miRNA signatures regulating isoform expression. Additionally, we show that SCALPEL improves isoform quantification using paired long- and short-read scRNA-seq data. Overall, SCALPEL expands the current scRNA-seq toolkit to explore post-transcriptional gene regulation across species, tissues, and technologies, advancing our understanding of gene regulatory mechanisms at the single-cell level.</p>

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Quantification of transcript isoforms at the single-cell level using SCALPEL

  • Franz Ake,
  • Marcel Schilling,
  • Sandra M. Fernández-Moya,
  • Akshay Jaya Ganesh,
  • Ana Gutiérrez-Franco,
  • Lei Li,
  • Mireya Plass

摘要

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) facilitates the study of transcriptome diversity in individual cells. Yet, many existing methods lack sensitivity and accuracy. Here we introduce SCALPEL, a Nextflow-based tool to quantify and characterize transcript isoforms from standard 3’ scRNA-seq data. Using synthetic data, SCALPEL demonstrates higher sensitivity and specificity compared to other tools. In real datasets, SCALPEL predictions have a high agreement with other tools and can be experimentally validated. The use of SCALPEL on real datasets reveals novel cell populations undetectable using single-cell gene expression data, confirms known 3’ UTR length changes during cell differentiation, and identifies cell-type specific miRNA signatures regulating isoform expression. Additionally, we show that SCALPEL improves isoform quantification using paired long- and short-read scRNA-seq data. Overall, SCALPEL expands the current scRNA-seq toolkit to explore post-transcriptional gene regulation across species, tissues, and technologies, advancing our understanding of gene regulatory mechanisms at the single-cell level.