Data-driven identification of total RNA expression genes for estimation of RNA abundance in heterogeneous cell types highlighted in brain tissue
Louise A. Huuki-Myers, Kelsey D. Montgomery, Sang‐Ho Kwon, Stephanie C. Page, Stephanie C. Hicks, Kristen R. Maynard, Leonardo Collado‐Torres
Abstract
We define and identify a new class of control genes for next-generation sequencing called total RNA expression genes (TREGs), which correlate with total RNA abundance in cell types of different sizes and transcriptional activity. We provide a data-driven method to identify TREGs from single-cell RNA sequencing data, allowing the estimation of total amount of RNA when restricted to quantifying a limited number of genes. We demonstrate our method in postmortem human brain using multiplex single-molecule fluorescent in situ hybridization and compare candidate TREGs against classic housekeeping genes. We identify AKT3 as a top TREG across five brain regions.