Detection of isoforms and genomic alterations by high-throughput full-length single-cell RNA sequencing in ovarian cancer


Date

2023-11-27

Publication Type

Journal Article

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

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Data

Abstract

Understanding the complex background of cancer requires genotype-phenotype information in single-cell resolution. Here, we perform long-read single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) on clinical samples from three ovarian cancer patients presenting with omental metastasis and increase the PacBio sequencing depth to 12,000 reads per cell. Our approach captures 152,000 isoforms, of which over 52,000 were not previously reported. Isoform-level analysis accounting for non-coding isoforms reveals 20% overestimation of protein-coding gene expression on average. We also detect cell type-specific isoform and poly-adenylation site usage in tumor and mesothelial cells, and find that mesothelial cells transition into cancer-associated fibroblasts in the metastasis, partly through the TGF-β/miR-29/Collagen axis. Furthermore, we identify gene fusions, including an experimentally validated IGF2BP2::TESPA1 fusion, which is misclassified as high TESPA1 expression in matched short-read data, and call mutations confirmed by targeted NGS cancer gene panel results. With these findings, we envision long-read scRNA-seq to become increasingly relevant in oncology and personalized medicine.

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Volume

14 (1)

Pages / Article No.

7780

Publisher

Nature

Event

Edition / version

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

Organisational unit

02892 - NEXUS Personalized Health / NEXUS Personalized Health check_circle
09595 - Snijder, Berend (ehemalig) / Snijder, Berend (former) check_circle
02072 - Proteomics Plattform D-HEST check_circle
03790 - Beerenwinkel, Niko / Beerenwinkel, Niko check_circle
09568 - Rätsch, Gunnar / Rätsch, Gunnar check_circle
09735 - Bodenmiller, Bernd / Bodenmiller, Bernd check_circle

Notes

Funding

190413 - Single-cell transcript isoform sequencing for precision oncology diagnostics and treatment (SNF)
766030 - Computational ONcology TRaining Alliance (EC)

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