GPseudoClust: deconvolution of shared pseudo-trajectories at single-cell resolution

Abstract

MotivationMany methods have been developed to cluster genes on the basis of their changes in mRNA expression over time, using bulk RNA-seq or microarray data. However, single-cell data may present a particular challenge for these algorithms, since the temporal ordering of cells is not directly observed. One way to address this is to first use pseudotime methods to order the cells, and then apply clustering techniques for time course data. However, pseudotime estimates are subject to high levels of uncertainty, and failing to account for this uncertainty is liable to lead to erroneous and/or over-confident gene clusters.\n\nResultsThe proposed method, GPseudoClust, is a novel approach that jointly infers pseudotem-poral ordering and gene clusters, and quantifies the uncertainty in both. GPseudoClust combines a recent method for pseudotime inference with nonparametric Bayesian clustering methods, efficient MCMC sampling, and novel subsampling strategies which aid computation. We consider a broad array of simulated and experimental datasets to demonstrate the effectiveness of GPseudoClust in a range of settings.\n\nAvailabilityAn implementation is available on GitHub: https://github.com/magStra/nonparametricSummaryPSM and https://github.com/magStra/GPseudoClust.\n\nContactms58@sanger.ac.uk\n\nSupplementary informationSupplementary materials are available.