Sphinx: modeling transcriptional heterogeneity in single-cell RNA-Seq

The significance of single-cell transcription resides not only in the cumulative expression strength of the cell population but also in its heterogeneity. We propose a new model that improves the detection of changes in the transcriptional heterogeneity pattern of RNA-Seq data using two heterogeneity parameters: ‘burst proportion’ and ‘burst magnitude’, whose changes are validated using RNA-FISH. Transcriptional ‘co-bursting’ – governed by distinct mechanisms during myoblast proliferation and differentiation – is described here.