Boolean Implication Analysis Improves Prediction Accuracy of In Silico Gene Reporting of Retinal Cell Types

Published: Oct. 1, 2020, 3:02 p.m.

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.09.28.317313v1?rss=1 Authors: Subramanian, R., Sahoo, D. Abstract: The retina is a complex tissue containing multiple cell types that is essential for vision. Understanding the gene expression patterns of various retinal cell types has potential applications in regenerative medicine. Retinal organoids (optic vesicles) derived from pluripotent stem cells have begun to yield insights into the transcriptomics of developing retinal cell types in humans through single cell RNA-sequencing studies. Previous methods of gene reporting have relied upon techniques in vivo using microarray data, or correlational and dimension reduction methods for analyzing single cell RNA-sequencing data in silico. Here, we present a bioinformatic approach using Boolean implication to discover retinal cell type-specific genes. We apply this approach to previously published retina and retinal organoid datasets and improve upon previously published correlational methods. Our method improves the prediction accuracy and reproducibility of marker genes of retinal cell types and discovers several new high confidence cone and rod-specific genes. Furthermore, our method is general and can impact all areas of gene expression analyses in cancer and other human diseases. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info