EpiCHAOS: a metric to quantify epigenomic heterogeneity in single-cell data

Kelly, Katherine; Scherer, Michael; Braun, Martina Maria; Lutsik, Pavlo; Plass, Christoph

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13059-024-03446-w

EpiCHAOS: a metric to quantify epigenomic heterogeneity in single-cell data

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Kelly K, Scherer M, Braun MM, Lutsik P, Plass C. EpiCHAOS: a metric to quantify epigenomic heterogeneity in single-cell data. Genome Biol. 2024 Dec 3;25(1):305. DOI: 10.1186/s13059-024-03446-w

Abstract

Epigenetic heterogeneity is a fundamental property of biological systems and is recognized as a potential driver of tumor plasticity and therapy resistance. Single-cell epigenomics technologies have been widely employed to study epigenetic variation between-but not within-cellular clusters. We introduce epiCHAOS: a quantitative metric of cell-to-cell heterogeneity, applicable to any single-cell epigenomics data type. After validation in synthetic datasets, we apply epiCHAOS to investigate global and region-specific patterns of epigenetic heterogeneity across diverse biological systems. EpiCHAOS provides an excellent approximation of stemness and plasticity in development and malignancy, making it a valuable addition to single-cell cancer epigenomics analyses.