Using mutations in cancer and healthy single cells to track evolutionary changes
Variations in the cellular DNA occur frequently and are passed on to descending cells, thereby tracking the evolutionary history of cell populations. In a study published in Cell Genomics, researchers from the Computational Biology group of Niko Beerenwinkel utilized DNA variations to investigate the evolutionary rates in single cells from healthy and cancer tissues. They found that most cancer cells vary in their evolution rate, and also many healthy tissues show evidence for varying rates.
Abstract
- The researchers developed a test for detecting varying evolutionary rates in single-cell DNA sequencing data that uses the evolutionary relationship between individual cells.
- In most cancer datasets and half of the healthy datasets studied, the test detected evidence for variations in the evolutionary rates.
- In most of the analyzed cancer datasets with varying rates, the variations in the evolutionary rates could be explained by mutations occurring in cancer driver genes.
Find original publication in Cell Genomics:
Borgsmüller, N, M Valecha, J Kuiper’s, N Beerenwinkel and D Posada (2023) Single-cell phylogenies reveal changes in the evolutionary rate within cancer and healthy tissues. Cell Genomics, external pagehttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2023.100380
Learn about research in the Computational Biology group led by Niko Beerenwinkel.