BayesCCE: a Bayesian framework for estimating cell-type composition from DNA methylation without the need for methylation reference

Abstract We introduce a Bayesian semi-supervised method for estimating cell counts from DNA methylation by leveraging an easily obtainable prior knowledge on the cell-type composition distribution of the studied tissue. We show mathematically and empirically that alternative methods which attempt to...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Elior Rahmani, Regev Schweiger, Liat Shenhav, Theodora Wingert, Ira Hofer, Eilon Gabel, Eleazar Eskin, Eran Halperin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2018-09-01
Series:Genome Biology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13059-018-1513-2
Description
Summary:Abstract We introduce a Bayesian semi-supervised method for estimating cell counts from DNA methylation by leveraging an easily obtainable prior knowledge on the cell-type composition distribution of the studied tissue. We show mathematically and empirically that alternative methods which attempt to infer cell counts without methylation reference only capture linear combinations of cell counts rather than provide one component per cell type. Our approach allows the construction of components such that each component corresponds to a single cell type, and provides a new opportunity to investigate cell compositions in genomic studies of tissues for which it was not possible before.
ISSN:1474-760X