A Bayesian approach to inference about a change point model with application to DNA copy number experimental data

Statistical Considerations on NGS Data for Inferring Copy Number Variations

The next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology has revolutionized research in genetics and genomics, resulting in massive NGS data and opening more fronts to answer unresolved issues in genetics. NGS data are usually stored at three levels: image files, sequence tags, and alignment reads. The sizes of these types of data usually range from several hundreds of gigabytes to several terabytes. Biostatisticians and bioinformaticians are typically working with the aligned NGS read count data (hence the last level of NGS data) for data modeling and interpretation.To horn in on the use of NGS technology, researchers utilize it to profile the whole genome to study DNA copy number variations (CNVs) for an individual subject (or patient) as well as groups of subjects (or patients). The resulting aligned NGS read count data are then modeled by proper mathematical and statistical approaches so that the loci of CNVs can be accurately detected. In this book chapter, a summary of most popularly used statistical methods for detecting CNVs using NGS data is given. The goal is to provide readers with a comprehensive resource of available statistical approaches for inferring DNA copy number variations using NGS data.

Detection of Copy Number Variation Regions Using the DNA-Sequencing Data from Multiple Profiles with Correlated Structure

In this article, we investigate the problem of detecting boundaries of DNA copy number variation (CNV) regions using the DNA-sequencing data from multiple subject samples. Genomic features along the linear realization of the actual genome are correlated, especially within vicinity of a locus, so are the sequencing reads along the genome. It is then crucial to take the correlated structure of such high-throughput genomic data into consideration when modeling DNA-sequencing data for CNV detection from statistical and computational viewpoints. We use the framework of a fused Lasso latent feature model to solve the problem, and propose a modified information criterion for selecting the tuning parameter when search for common CNVs is shared by multiple subjects. Simulation studies and application on multiple subjects' next-generation sequencing data, downloaded from the 1000 Genome Project, showed that the proposed approach can effectively identify individual CNVs of a single subject profile and common CNVs shared by multiple subjects.

iSeg: an efficient algorithm for segmentation of genomic and epigenomic data

Background

Identification of functional elements of a genome often requires dividing a sequence of measurements along a genome into segments where adjacent segments have different properties, such as different mean values. Despite dozens of algorithms developed to address this problem in genomics research, methods with improved accuracy and speed are still needed to effectively tackle both existing and emerging genomic and epigenomic segmentation problems.

Results

We designed an efficient algorithm, called iSeg, for segmentation of genomic and epigenomic profiles. iSeg first utilizes dynamic programming to identify candidate segments and test for significance. It then uses a novel data structure based on two coupled balanced binary trees to detect overlapping significant segments and update them simultaneously during searching and refinement stages. Refinement and merging of significant segments are performed at the end to generate the final set of segments. By using an objective function based on the p-values of the segments, the algorithm can serve as a general computational framework to be combined with different assumptions on the distributions of the data. As a general segmentation method, it can segment different types of genomic and epigenomic data, such as DNA copy number variation, nucleosome occupancy, nuclease sensitivity, and differential nuclease sensitivity data. Using simple t-tests to compute p-values across multiple datasets of different types, we evaluate iSeg using both simulated and experimental datasets and show that it performs satisfactorily when compared with some other popular methods, which often employ more sophisticated statistical models. Implemented in C++, iSeg is also very computationally efficient, well suited for large numbers of input profiles and data with very long sequences.

Conclusions

We have developed an efficient general-purpose segmentation tool and showed that it had comparable or more accurate results than many of the most popular segment-calling algorithms used in contemporary genomic data analysis. iSeg is capable of analyzing datasets that have both positive and negative values. Tunable parameters allow users to readily adjust the statistical stringency to best match the biological nature of individual datasets, including widely or sparsely mapped genomic datasets or those with non-normal distributions.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12859-018-2140-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Modeling the next generation sequencing read count data for DNA copy number variant study

As one of the most recent advanced technologies developed for biomedical research, the next generation sequencing (NGS) technology has opened more opportunities for scientific discovery of genetic information. The NGS technology is particularly useful in elucidating a genome for the analysis of DNA copy number variants (CNVs). The study of CNVs is important as many genetic studies have led to the conclusion that cancer development, genetic disorders, and other diseases are usually relevant to CNVs on the genome. One way to analyze the NGS data for detecting boundaries of CNV regions on a chromosome or a genome is to phrase the problem as a statistical change point detection problem presented in the read count data. We therefore provide a statistical change point model to help detect CNVs using the NGS read count data. We use a Bayesian approach to incorporate possible parameter changes in the underlying distribution of the NGS read count data. Posterior probabilities for the change point inferences are derived. Extensive simulation studies have shown advantages of our proposed methods. The proposed methods are also applied to a publicly available lung cancer cell line NGS dataset, and CNV regions on this cell line are successfully identified.