A regression based approach to phylogenetic reconstruction from multi-sample bulk DNA sequencing of tumors.

<h4>Motivation</h4>DNA sequencing of multiple bulk samples from a tumor provides the opportunity to investigate tumor heterogeneity and reconstruct a phylogeny of a patient's cancer. However, since bulk DNA sequencing of tumor tissue measures thousands of cells from a heterogeneous...

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Main Authors: Henri Schmidt, Benjamin J Raphael
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2024-12-01
Series:PLoS Computational Biology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012631
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author Henri Schmidt
Benjamin J Raphael
author_facet Henri Schmidt
Benjamin J Raphael
author_sort Henri Schmidt
collection DOAJ
description <h4>Motivation</h4>DNA sequencing of multiple bulk samples from a tumor provides the opportunity to investigate tumor heterogeneity and reconstruct a phylogeny of a patient's cancer. However, since bulk DNA sequencing of tumor tissue measures thousands of cells from a heterogeneous mixture of distinct sub-populations, accurate reconstruction of the tumor phylogeny requires simultaneous deconvolution of cancer clones and inference of ancestral relationships, leading to a challenging computational problem. Many existing methods for phylogenetic reconstruction from bulk sequencing data do not scale to large datasets, such as recent datasets containing upwards of ninety samples with dozens of distinct sub-populations.<h4>Results</h4>We develop an approach to reconstruct phylogenetic trees from multi-sample bulk DNA sequencing data by separating the reconstruction problem into two parts: a structured regression problem for a fixed tree [Formula: see text], and an optimization over tree space. We derive an algorithm for the regression sub-problem by exploiting the unique, combinatorial structure of the matrices appearing within the problem. This algorithm has both asymptotic and empirical improvements over linear programming (LP) approaches to the problem. Using our algorithm for this regression sub-problem, we develop fastBE, a simple method for phylogenetic inference from multi-sample bulk DNA sequencing data. We demonstrate on simulated data with hundreds of samples and upwards of a thousand distinct sub-populations that fastBE outperforms existing approaches in terms of reconstruction accuracy, sample efficiency, and runtime. Owing to its scalability, fastBE enables both phylogenetic reconstruction directly from indvidual mutations without requiring the clustering of mutations into clones, as well as a new phylogeny constrained mutation clustering algorithm. On real data from fourteen B-progenitor acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients, fastBE infers mutation phylogenies with fewer violations of a widely used evolutionary constraint and better agreement to the observed mutational frequencies. Using our phylogeny constrained mutation clustering algorithm, we also find mutation clusters with lower distortion compared to state-of-the-art approaches. Finally, we show that on two patient-derived colorectal cancer models, fastBE infers mutation phylogenies with less violation of a widely used evolutionary constraint compared to existing methods.
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spelling doaj-art-4c1c8ab151f24e2380bad730d9b1bfa32025-08-20T03:08:32ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582024-12-012012e101263110.1371/journal.pcbi.1012631A regression based approach to phylogenetic reconstruction from multi-sample bulk DNA sequencing of tumors.Henri SchmidtBenjamin J Raphael<h4>Motivation</h4>DNA sequencing of multiple bulk samples from a tumor provides the opportunity to investigate tumor heterogeneity and reconstruct a phylogeny of a patient's cancer. However, since bulk DNA sequencing of tumor tissue measures thousands of cells from a heterogeneous mixture of distinct sub-populations, accurate reconstruction of the tumor phylogeny requires simultaneous deconvolution of cancer clones and inference of ancestral relationships, leading to a challenging computational problem. Many existing methods for phylogenetic reconstruction from bulk sequencing data do not scale to large datasets, such as recent datasets containing upwards of ninety samples with dozens of distinct sub-populations.<h4>Results</h4>We develop an approach to reconstruct phylogenetic trees from multi-sample bulk DNA sequencing data by separating the reconstruction problem into two parts: a structured regression problem for a fixed tree [Formula: see text], and an optimization over tree space. We derive an algorithm for the regression sub-problem by exploiting the unique, combinatorial structure of the matrices appearing within the problem. This algorithm has both asymptotic and empirical improvements over linear programming (LP) approaches to the problem. Using our algorithm for this regression sub-problem, we develop fastBE, a simple method for phylogenetic inference from multi-sample bulk DNA sequencing data. We demonstrate on simulated data with hundreds of samples and upwards of a thousand distinct sub-populations that fastBE outperforms existing approaches in terms of reconstruction accuracy, sample efficiency, and runtime. Owing to its scalability, fastBE enables both phylogenetic reconstruction directly from indvidual mutations without requiring the clustering of mutations into clones, as well as a new phylogeny constrained mutation clustering algorithm. On real data from fourteen B-progenitor acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients, fastBE infers mutation phylogenies with fewer violations of a widely used evolutionary constraint and better agreement to the observed mutational frequencies. Using our phylogeny constrained mutation clustering algorithm, we also find mutation clusters with lower distortion compared to state-of-the-art approaches. Finally, we show that on two patient-derived colorectal cancer models, fastBE infers mutation phylogenies with less violation of a widely used evolutionary constraint compared to existing methods.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012631
spellingShingle Henri Schmidt
Benjamin J Raphael
A regression based approach to phylogenetic reconstruction from multi-sample bulk DNA sequencing of tumors.
PLoS Computational Biology
title A regression based approach to phylogenetic reconstruction from multi-sample bulk DNA sequencing of tumors.
title_full A regression based approach to phylogenetic reconstruction from multi-sample bulk DNA sequencing of tumors.
title_fullStr A regression based approach to phylogenetic reconstruction from multi-sample bulk DNA sequencing of tumors.
title_full_unstemmed A regression based approach to phylogenetic reconstruction from multi-sample bulk DNA sequencing of tumors.
title_short A regression based approach to phylogenetic reconstruction from multi-sample bulk DNA sequencing of tumors.
title_sort regression based approach to phylogenetic reconstruction from multi sample bulk dna sequencing of tumors
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012631
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