Biology subjects

Mezger, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Mezger, A..

7 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Comparative analysis of whole genome amplification kits for single cell genome analysis

Whole genome amplification (WGA) enables detailed analysis of genomic heterogeneity at the cellular level. Here, we systematically compare two commercially available WGA technologies on single cells; Multiple Displacement Amplification in the Qiagen REPLI-g kit (MDA/REPLI-g) and Primary Template-directed Amplification in the BioSkryb ResolveDNA kit (PTA/ResolveDNA). Beyond quality control and genomic profiling, we assessed a cost-effective array-based approach as a complement to low-pass sequencing. Consistent with available benchmarks, PTA/ResolveDNA sequencing libraries consistently outperformed MDA/REPLI-g across quality metrics, including genome coverage breadth and uniformity. CNV calls from PTA-cells showed higher accuracy and sensitivity, including reliable detection of small CNVs at low sequencing depth. SNP array-based analysis corroborated sequencing-based findings, and additionally provided allelic information. Notably, CNV detection from SNP arrays matched the performance of low-pass sequencing, supporting its utility as an cost-effective approach for WGA quality control and single-cell CNV profiling.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2025

Isoform-Level Analysis of 10x Genomics Single-Cell cDNA Libraries from Cultured K562 Cells Using Long-Read Sequencing

Integration of Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) long-read sequencing with 10x Genomics single-cell cDNA libraries enables novel transcript detection, isoform analysis and captures full-length gene body coverage. The purpose of the study was the comparison of three approaches for sequencing 10x Genomics Chromium Single Cell cDNA libraries using long-read sequencing: single-cell full-length transcript sequencing by sampling (FLT-seq), the cDNA-PCR Sequencing Kit (SQK-PCS111) and the PCR Expansion Kit (EXP-PCA001). Our aim was to evaluate their efficiency in enriching full-length cDNA fragments, identifying barcodes, detecting novel isoforms and mutations, and characterizing transcript coverage profiles.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2025

Adapter dilution and input optimisation for Qiagen QIAseq miRNA Library kit

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNA that play a critical role in regulating gene expressions that are important for a multitude of biological processes. In the preparation of miRNA sequencing libraries by using QIAseq miRNA library kit, adapter dimers might occur inadvertently and compromise the sequencing performance. In this technical note, we tested different adapter dilution strategies to minimise or diminish adapter dimers without compromising data quality. In our experiments, we found that RNA input amount plays a larger role in adapter dimer formation rather than the availability of the adapters itself. We suggest preparing the sequencing library with 10 times more RNA than the recommended input amount of the chosen protocol, e.g. following the adapter dilution and PCR cycle number of the standard 1 ng protocol with 10 ng RNA input. We also suggest analysing the data with deduplication by using unique molecular identifiers (UMIs) as it helps remove unusable reads.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2019

A single cell framework for multi-omic analysis of disease identifies malignant regulatory signatures in mixed phenotype acute leukemia

In order to identify the molecular determinants of human diseases, such as cancer, that arise from a diverse range of tissue, it is necessary to accurately distinguish normal and pathogenic cellular programs.1-3 Here we present a novel approach for single-cell multi-omic deconvolution of healthy and pathological molecular signatures within phenotypically heterogeneous malignant cells. By first creating immunophenotypic, transcriptomic and epigenetic single-cell maps of hematopoietic development from healthy peripheral blood and bone marrow mononuclear cells, we identify cancer-specific transcriptional and chromatin signatures from single cells in a cohort of mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) clinical samples. MPALs are a high-risk subtype of acute leukemia characterized by a heterogeneous malignant cell population expressing both myeloid and lymphoid lineage-specific markers.4, 5 Our results reveal widespread heterogeneity in the pathogenetic gene regulatory and expression programs across patients, yet relatively consistent changes within patients even across malignant cells occupying diverse portions of the hematopoietic lineage. An integrative analysis of transcriptomic and epigenetic maps identifies 91,601 putative gene-regulatory interactions and classifies a number of transcription factors that regulate leukemia specific genes, including RUNX1-linked regulatory elements proximal to CD69. This work provides a template for integrative, multi-omic analysis for the interpretation of pathogenic molecular signatures in the context of developmental origin.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2018

Landscape of stimulation-responsive chromatin across diverse human immune cells

The immune system is controlled by a balanced interplay among specialized cell types transitioning between resting and stimulated states. Despite its importance, the regulatory landscape of this system has not yet been fully characterized. To address this gap, we collected ATAC-seq and RNA-seq data under resting and stimulated conditions for 25 immune cell types from peripheral blood of four healthy individuals, and seven cell types from three fetal thymus samples. We found that stimulation caused widespread chromatin remodeling, including a large class of response elements shared between stimulated B and T cells. Furthermore, several autoimmune traits showed significant heritability in stimulation-responsive elements from distinct cell types, highlighting the critical importance of these cell states in autoimmunity. Use of allele-specific read-mapping identified thousands of variants that alter chromatin accessibility in particular conditions. Notably, variants associated with changes in stimulation-specific chromatin accessibility were not enriched for associations with gene expression regulation in whole blood - a tissue commonly used in eQTL studies. Thus, large-scale maps of variants associated with gene regulation lack a condition important for understanding autoimmunity. As a proof-of-principle we identified variant rs6927172, which links stimulated T cell-specific chromatin dysregulation in the TNFAIP3 locus to ulcerative colitis and rheumatoid arthritis. Overall, our results provide a broad resource of chromatin landscape dynamics and highlight the need for large-scale characterization of effects of genetic variation in stimulated cells.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2018

Pooled optical screens in human cells

Large-scale genetic screens play a key role in the systematic discovery of genes underlying cellular phenotypes. Pooling of genetic perturbations greatly increases screening throughput, but has so far been limited to screens of enrichments defined by cell fitness and flow cytometry, or to comparatively low-throughput single cell gene expression profiles. Although microscopy is a rich source of spatial and temporal information about mammalian cells, high-content imaging screens have been restricted to much less efficient arrayed formats. Here, we introduce an optical method to link perturbations and their phenotypic outcomes at the singlecell level in a pooled setting. Barcoded perturbations are read out by targeted in situ sequencing following image-based phenotyping. We apply this technology to screen a focused set of 952 genes across >3 million cells for involvement in NF-{kappa}B activation by imaging the translocation of RelA (p65) to the nucleus, recovering 20 known pathway components and 3 novel candidate positive regulators of IL-1{beta} and TNF-stimulated immune responses.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2018

High-throughput chromatin accessibility profiling at single-cell resolution

We have developed a high-throughput single-cell ATAC-seq (assay for transposition of accessible chromatin) method to measure physical access to DNA in whole cells. Our approach integrates fluorescence imaging and addressable reagent deposition across a massively parallel (5184) nano-well array, yielding a nearly 20-fold improvement in throughput (up to ~1800 cells/chip, 4-5 hour on-chip processing time) and cost (~98{cents} per cell) compared to prior microfluidic implementations. We applied this method to measure regulatory variation in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) and show robust, de-novo clustering of single cells by hematopoietic cell type.

genomics↗