Journal Article

Pan-cancer single-cell RNA-seq identifies recurring programs of cellular heterogeneity

Kinker, Gabriela S., McFarland, James M., Puram, Sidharth V., Fernandes, Pedro A. C. M., Bender, Samantha A., Roth, Jennifer A., Rocco, James W., Tal, Rotem, Warren, Allison, Regev, Aviv, Rozenblatt-Rosen, Orit, Greenwald, Alissa C., Cuoco, Michael S., Barr, Haim, Kumar, Bhavna, Tsherniak, Aviad, Orlova, Zhanna, Rodman, Christopher, Mader, Christopher C., Keren-Shaul, Hadas, Plotnikov, Alexander, Tirosh, Itay, Krizhanovsky, Valery

2020

Overview

Cultured cell lines are the workhorse of cancer research, but the extent to which they recapitulate the heterogeneity observed among malignant cells in tumors is unclear. Here we used multiplexed single-cell RNA-seq to profile 198 cancer cell lines from 22 cancer types. We identified 12 expression programs that are recurrently heterogeneous within multiple cancer cell lines. These programs are associated with diverse biological processes, including cell cycle, senescence, stress and interferon responses, epithelial–mesenchymal transition and protein metabolism. Most of these programs recapitulate those recently identified as heterogeneous within human tumors. We prioritized specific cell lines as models of cellular heterogeneity and used them to study subpopulations of senescence-related cells, demonstrating their dynamics, regulation and unique drug sensitivities, which were predictive of clinical response. Our work describes the landscape of heterogeneity within diverse cancer cell lines and identifies recurrent patterns of heterogeneity that are shared between tumors and specific cell lines. Single-cell RNA-seq of a collection of 200 cancer cell lines finds common, recurrent heterogeneous expression programs, which also are found in patient samples and are linked to cell state and drug sensitivity.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group US,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 38 / 38/91 / 631/337/2019 / 631/553 / 631/67 / Agriculture / Animal Genetics and Genomics / Biological activity / Biological response modifiers / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Biotechnology / Cancer / Cancer cells / Cancer Research / Cell culture / Cell cycle / Cell Line, Tumor - drug effects / Cell lines / Cellular Senescence - genetics / Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor / Gene expression / Gene Function / Genetic aspects / Genetic Heterogeneity / Genomics / Health aspects / Heterogeneity / Human Genetics / Humans / Interferon / Melanoma / Mesenchyme / Methods / Neoplasms - genetics / Oncology, Experimental / Precancerous Conditions - genetics / Protein metabolism / Protein turnover / Ribonucleic acid / RNA / RNA sequencing / RNA-Seq / Senescence / Stress, Physiological - genetics / Subpopulations / Tumor cell lines / Tumor Microenvironment / Tumors