Genome-Wide Detection of Single-Nucleotide and Copy-Number Variations of a Single Human Cell

Abstract

Kindred cells can have different genomes because of dynamic changes in DNA. Single cell sequencing is needed to characterize these genomic differences but has been hindered by whole-genome amplification bias, resulting in low genome coverage. Here we report a new amplification method: Multiple Annealing and Looping Based Amplification Cycles (MALBAC) that offer high uniformity across the genome. Sequencing MALBAC amplified DNA achieves 93% genome coverage ≥1x for a single human cell at 25x mean sequencing depth. We detected digitized copy number variations (CNVs) of a single cancer cell. By sequencing three kindred cells, we were able to call individual single nucleotide variations (SNVs) with no false positives observed. We directly measured the genome-wide mutation rate of a cancer cell line and found that purine-pyrimidine exchanges occurred unusually frequently among the newly acquired SNVs.