Dataset Information

Probabilistic harmonization and annotation of single-cell transcriptomics data with deep generative models.

ABSTRACT: As the number of single-cell transcriptomics datasets grows, the natural next step is to integrate the accumulating data to achieve a common ontology of cell types and states. However, it is not straightforward to compare gene expression levels across datasets and to automatically assign cell type labels in a new dataset based on existing annotations. In this manuscript, we demonstrate that our previously developed method, scVI, provides an effective and fully probabilistic approach for joint representation and analysis of scRNA-seq data, while accounting for uncertainty caused by biological and measurement noise. We also introduce single-cell ANnotation using Variational Inference (scANVI), a semi-supervised variant of scVI designed to leverage existing cell state annotations. We demonstrate that scVI and scANVI compare favorably to state-of-the-art methods for data integration and cell state annotation in terms of accuracy, scalability, and adaptability to challenging settings. In contrast to existing methods, scVI and scANVI integrate multiple datasets with a single generative model that can be directly used for downstream tasks, such as differential expression. Both methods are easily accessible through scvi-tools.

SUBMITTER: Xu C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7829634 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Probabilistic harmonization and annotation of single-cell transcriptomics data with deep generative models.

Xu Chenling C Lopez Romain R Mehlman Edouard E Regier Jeffrey J Jordan Michael I MI Yosef Nir N

Molecular systems biology 20210101 1

As the number of single-cell transcriptomics datasets grows, the natural next step is to integrate the accumulating data to achieve a common ontology of cell types and states. However, it is not straightforward to compare gene expression levels across datasets and to automatically assign cell type labels in a new dataset based on existing annotations. In this manuscript, we demonstrate that our previously developed method, scVI, provides an effective and fully probabilistic approach for joint re ...[more]

PMID: 33491336

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Project description:Deep generative models, such as variational autoencoders (VAEs) or deep Boltzmann machines (DBMs), can generate an arbitrary number of synthetic observations after being trained on an initial set of samples. This has mainly been investigated for imaging data but could also be useful for single-cell transcriptomics (scRNA-seq). A small pilot study could be used for planning a full-scale experiment by investigating planned analysis strategies on synthetic data with different sample sizes. It is unclear whether synthetic observations generated based on a small scRNA-seq dataset reflect the properties relevant for subsequent data analysis steps. We specifically investigated two deep generative modeling approaches, VAEs and DBMs. First, we considered single-cell variational inference (scVI) in two variants, generating samples from the posterior distribution, the standard approach, or the prior distribution. Second, we propose single-cell deep Boltzmann machines (scDBMs). When considering the similarity of clustering results on synthetic data to ground-truth clustering, we find that the [Formula: see text] variant resulted in high variability, most likely due to amplifying artifacts of small datasets. All approaches showed mixed results for cell types with different abundance by overrepresenting highly abundant cell types and missing less abundant cell types. With increasing pilot dataset sizes, the proportions of the cells in each cluster became more similar to that of ground-truth data. We also showed that all approaches learn the univariate distribution of most genes, but problems occurred with bimodality. Across all analyses, in comparing 10[Formula: see text] Genomics and Smart-seq2 technologies, we could show that for 10[Formula: see text] datasets, which have higher sparsity, it is more challenging to make inference from small to larger datasets. Overall, the results show that generative deep learning approaches might be valuable for supporting the design of scRNA-seq experiments.

Dataset Information

Probabilistic harmonization and annotation of single-cell transcriptomics data with deep generative models.

Publications

Probabilistic harmonization and annotation of single-cell transcriptomics data with deep generative models.

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