Isoform-level discovery, quantification and fusion analysis from single-cell and spatial long-read RNA-seq data with Bambu-Clump
Sim et al. introduce Bambu-Clump — a new computational tool for transcript discovery and quantification in single-cell and spatial long-read RNA sequencing. Bambu-Clump can be applied to long- and short-read RNA datasets, and overcomes the challenge of low sequencing depth by leveraging information from both individual cells and cell clusters.
Key points:
- The authors generated single-cell and spatial RNA sequencing datasets for cancer cell lines and mouse brain tissue using Oxford Nanopore reads of unrestricted length and other long- and short-read sequencing technologies. 
- Oxford Nanopore sequencing had comparable overall performance for transcript discovery, but had a higher median read length and was faster and more cost-effective than an alternative long-read sequencing platform. 
- The full-length RNA sequencing capabilities of Oxford Nanopore Technologies were essential for resolving transcript isoforms and detecting fusion events. 
- This work could potentially benefit cancer research in the future as many cancers involve fusion genes, structural mutations, and abnormal RNA splicing. 
Sample type: human cancer cell lines and mouse brain tissue