scPADGRN: A preconditioned ADMM approach for reconstructing dynamic gene regulatory network using single-cell RNA sequencing data
Authors: Zheng Xiao , Huang Yuan , Zou Xiufen 
Published: October 2019

Disease development and cell differentiation both involve dynamic changes; therefore, the reconstruction of dynamic gene regulatory networks (DGRNs) is an important but difficult problem in systems biology. With recent technical advances in single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), large volumes of scRNA-seq data are being obtained for various processes. However, most current methods of inferring DGRNs from bulk samples may not be suitable for scRNA-seq data. In this work, we present scPADGRN, a novel DGRN inference method using time-series scRNA-seq data. scPADGRN combines the preconditioned alternating direction method of multipliers with cell clustering for DGRN reconstruction. It exhibits advantages in accuracy, robustness and fast convergence. Moreover, a quantitative index called Differentiation Genes’ Interaction Enrichment (DGIE) is presented to quantify the interaction enrichment of genes related to differentiation. From the DGIE scores of relevant subnetworks, we infer that the functions of embryonic stem (ES) cells are most active initially and may gradually fade over time. The communication strength of known contributing genes that facilitate cell differentiation increases from ES cells to terminally differentiated cells. We also identify several genes responsible for the changes in the DGIE scores occurring during cell differentiation based on three real single-cell datasets. Our results demonstrate that single-cell analyses based on network inference coupled with quantitative computations can reveal key transcriptional regulators involved in cell differentiation and disease development.

Author summary

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data are gaining popularity for providing access to cell-level measurements. Currently, time-series scRNA-seq data allow researchers to study dynamic changes during biological processes. This work proposes a novel method, scPADGRN, for application to time-series scRNA-seq data to construct dynamic gene regulatory networks, which are informative for investigating dynamic changes during disease development and cell differentiation. The proposed method shows satisfactory performance on both simulated data and three real datasets concerning cell differentiation. To quantify network dynamics, we present a quantitative index, DGIE, to measure the degree of activity of a certain set of genes in a regulatory network. Quantitative computations based on dynamic networks identify key regulators in cell differentiation and reveal the activity states of the identified regulators. Specifically, Bhlhe40, Msx2, Foxa2 and Dnmt3l might be important regulatory genes involved in differentiation from mouse ES cells to primitive endoderm (PrE) cells. For differentiation from mouse embryonic fibroblast cells to myocytes, Scx, Fos and Tcf12 are suggested to be key regulators. Sox5, Meis2, Hoxb3, Tcf7l1 and Plagl1 critically contribute during differentiation from human ES cells to definitive endoderm cells. These results may guide further theoretical and experimental efforts to understand cell differentiation processes and explore cell heterogeneity.