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.