--- title: "PoDCall: Positive Droplet Caller for DNA Methylation ddPCR" output: BiocStyle::html_document vignette: > %\VignetteIndexEntry{PoDCall: Positive Droplet Caller for DNA Methylation ddPCR} %\VignetteEngine{knitr::rmarkdown} %\VignetteEncoding{UTF-8} --- ```{r, include = FALSE} knitr::opts_chunk$set( collapse = TRUE, comment = "#>" ) ``` # Introduction PoDCall (Positive Droplet Caller) is a package that aims to provide a robust calling of positive droplets in DNA methylation droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) experiments performed on the Bio-Rad platform. PoDCall provides functions that reads files exported from QuantaSoft containing amplitudes from a run of ddPCR (one 96 well plate), sets thresholds for both channels of each individual well and calculates concentrations and normalized concentration for each well. The resulting threshold table can optionally be written to file automatically by the main workflow function. PoDCall also offers functionality for plotting, both individual wells and multiple well plots. Plots for individual wells can be made and saved as .pdf-files as part of the main workflow function `podcallDdpcr()`, or by calling the various plotting functions individually. ## Gaussian Mixture Models DdPCR experiments generate a mixture of droplets, positive droplets which contain the target that will be amplified, and negative droplets that does not contain the target and show no amplification. PoDCall relies on fitting Gaussian mixture models to set thresholds for each individual well that will be used to classify the droplets as either positive or negative. For more details on the concepts of PoDCall, see the application note. ## Input Data The input data is .csv-files exported from 'QuantaSoft', and each file contains the amplitude values of droplets from one well of a 96 well plate. The first two columns of the files should have headers 'Ch1 Amplitude' and 'Ch2 Amplitude'. To read in data, use the function importAmplitudeData, which will read all amplitude files in the directory given as argument. Each file will be stored as a named data frame in a list, where the name will be the well ID. For this reason, all raw data files in the directory given as argument should be from the same 96 well plate to avoid well coordinate duplicates. # Installation PoDCall requires some packages to be installed, and if any required packages are not yet installed, the installation of PoDCall should take care of it (you will be prompted to install the packages that are missing). The released version of PoDCall can be installed from [BIOCONDUCTOR](http://bioconductor.org/) using ``` {r installation, eval=FALSE} ## Install from Bioconductor if (!requireNamespace("BiocManager", quietly = TRUE)) install.packages("BiocManager") BiocManager::install("PoDCall") ## Alternatively install PoDCall from GitHub install.packages("devtools") devtools::install_github("HansPetterBrodal/PoDCall") ## Install PoDCall from source file install.packages("remotes") remotes::install_local("path/to/PoDCall_x.y.z.tar.gz") ``` After installing PoDCall and the required packages, PoDCall can be loaded with: ``` {r loading, eval=TRUE} library(PoDCall) ``` # Example / Usage One step of setting thresholds includes a random sampling of droplets to greatly reduce running time. To ensure reproducible results it is recommended to set a seed using `set.seed()`. To run the full PoDCall workflow, call the function `podcallDdpcr()`: ``` {r, eval=FALSE} ## Run PoDCall thresholdTable <- podcallDdpcr(dataDirectory="path/to/data/") ``` Where "path/to/data/" is the path of the directory that contains amplitude files from a well plate, in which the files have names that end with "_wellID_amplitude.csv". ## Optional arguments The following arguments have default values, but can be given other values if desired. For example to write results to file, which is disabled by default. ### sampleSheetFile Path to sample sheet file. Must be a .csv file exported from QuantaSoft and must include the following columns: Well, Sample, TargetType and Target. The entries in the column TargetType must be either 'Ch1Unknown' or 'Ch2Unknown', and is used to extract rows with information from either channel 1 or channel 2. An example file has been included in the package, which can be found using `system.file("extdata", "Sample_names.csv", package="PoDCall")` ### B The number of permutations used by the likelihood ratio test (LRT) which decides the number of components in the model fitted from the data. Default value `B=200`. ### Q A parameter used for calling outliers. Q is multiplied with the interquartile range of the distribution of amplitude values to determine if droplets of extreme amplitude values are to be considered outliers. The default value is `Q=9`, which has been determined through cell line experiments and testing. A higher Q will generally result in a higher or more strict threshold. Q provides an option to adjust how thresholds are set in a systematic and reproducible way. It is recommended to try a few different values and visually inspect the results. ### refwell The well used as reference when calculating the shift in baseline between wells. By default `refwell=1`, but can be changed in cases where the first well is not suited to be used. ### ch2 If channel 2 is not in use, set ch2 = FALSE to avoid error caused by empty channel 2 column. Default is `ch2=TRUE`. ### resultsToFile The user can choose to let PoDCall save the results table as a .csv-file by setting `resultsToFile=TRUE` (default: `resultsToFile = FALSE`). When resultsToFile is set to TRUE, a results directory will be created where the result file will be saved. The results directory will have the same name as the data directory with "_results" added: "path/to/data_results/ ### plots The user can choose to make plots that are written to file by setting `plots=TRUE` (default: `plots=FALSE`). Plots will be saved to the results directory created when `resultsToFile=TRUE`. The results directory will also be created if only `plots=TRUE`. ### resPath Optional argument to specify a directory for writing results file(s) to other than the results directory created by default. Requires `resultsToFile=TRUE`. ## Threshold table columns The table that is returned when running `podcallDdpcr()` contains columns with more or less self-explanatory column names, and well ID (well coordinates) as rownames: ### sample_id If a sample sheet file is provided, this will have the sample ID from the sample sheet. Otherwise empty ### thr_target the threshold set for channel 1, assumed to be the target ### thr_ctrl The threshold set for channel 2, assumed to be the control ### pos_dr_target The number of positive droplets in channel 1 (target) ### pos_dr_ctrl The number of positive droplets in channel 2 (control) ### tot_droplets Number of droplets. ### c_target Concentration of target, calculated by the formula $-\ln\dfrac{\dfrac{\text{neg_drop_tar}}{\text{tot_droplets}}}{0.000851}$ Where neg_drop_tar is number of negative droplets in channel 1 (target). ### c_ctrl Concentration of control, calculated by the formula $-\ln\dfrac{\dfrac{\text{neg_drop_ctrl}}{\text{tot_droplets}}}{0.000851}$ where neg_drop_ctrl is number of negative droplets in channel 2 (control). ### c_norm_4Plex Normalized concentration with 4Plex as control, calculated by the formula $\dfrac{\text{c_target}}{\text{c_ctrl}}\cdot400$ ### c_norm_sg Normalized concentration with single gene as control, calculated by the formula $\dfrac{\text{c_target}}{\text{c_ctrl}}\cdot100$ ### q The value used for Q ### target_assay The assay used for target channel, provided via sample sheet. ### ctrl_assay The assay used for control channel, provided via sample sheet. ### ref_well The well used as reference well for setting threshold. # PoDCall functions `podcallDdpcr()` is the main wrapper function that returns a table with the results of PoDCall to the user. This function uses a set of functions that read the amplitude data from file, set thresholds and make plots. All functions involved can be used individually should the user only want to use some of the functionality of PoDCall. Also see help files for more details about the functions and their arguments. ## `importAmplitudeData()` Reads .csv-files with amplitude data outputted from QuantaSoft and store the data in a list, one data frame per well. Each element in the list will be named using it's well ID (coordinate) of the 96 well plate that the sample belong to. ```{r import-amplitude-data, echo=TRUE} ## Path to example data files included in PoDCall path <- system.file("extdata", "Amplitudes/", package="PoDCall") ## Read in data files dataList <- importAmplitudeData(dataDirectory=path) str(dataList) ``` ## `importSampleSheet()` Reads a .csv-file outputted from QuantaSoft to get information about the samples: Sample name/id, Assay for target and control. ```{r import-sample-sheet, echo=TRUE} ## Path to example files included in PoDCall path <- system.file("extdata", "Sample_names.csv", package="PoDCall") ## Select wells to get information for well_id <- c("A04", "B04", "D04") ## Read in sample sheet information for selected wells sampleSheet <- importSampleSheet(sampleSheet=path, well_id=well_id) print(sampleSheet) ``` ## `podcallThresholds()` Takes a list of data frames, one for each well, as argument and sets individual thresholds for each channel of each well. It returns a table with thresholds, number of positive droplets, concentrations etc. The number of permutations for likelihood ratio test is by default set to `B=400` as a compromise between run time and stability of the results. The parameter for calling outliers is by default set to `Q=9`. Higher Q means more conservative (higher) thresholds, lower Q will result in over all lower thresholds. ```{r set-thresholds, eval=FALSE} ## Path to example data files included in PoDCall path <- system.file("extdata", "Amplitudes/", package="PoDCall") ## Read in data files ampData <- importAmplitudeData(dataDirectory=path) ## Calculate thresholds, metrics, concentrations thresholdTable <- podcallThresholds(plateData=ampData) print(thresholdTable) ``` ## `podcallChannelPlot()` Takes the threshold and amplitude values corresponding to a channel of a well as arguments, calls functions that makes scatter plot and histogram and draws a plot with both. ```{r channel-plot, echo=TRUE} ## Read in data and threshold table path <- system.file("extdata", "Amplitudes/", package="PoDCall") ampData <- importAmplitudeData(dataDirectory=path) data("thrTable") thresholdTable <- thrTable ## Select channel and well to plot ch <- 1 # target channel well_id <- names(ampData)[1] # First well in list ## Plot title plotTitle <- paste0(well_id, ", Ch", ch) ## Create plot podcallChannelPlot(channelData=ampData[[well_id]][,ch], thr=thresholdTable[well_id, "thr_target"], channel=ch, plotId=plotTitle) ``` ## `podcallScatterplot()` Takes the threshold and amplitude values corresponding to a channel of a well as argument and returns a scatter plot. ```{r scatter-plot, echo=TRUE} ## Read in data and threshold table path <- system.file("extdata", "Amplitudes/", package="PoDCall") ampData <- importAmplitudeData(dataDirectory=path) thresholdTable <- thrTable ## Select channel and well to plot ch <- 1 # target channel well_id <- names(ampData)[1] # First well in list ## Plot title plotTitle <- paste0(well_id, ", Ch", ch) ## Create plot podcallScatterplot(channelData=ampData[[well_id]][,ch], thr=thresholdTable[well_id, "thr_target"], channel=ch, plotId=plotTitle) ``` ## `podcallHistogram()` Takes the threshold and amplitude values corresponding to a channel of a well as argument, and returns a histogram. ```{r plot-histogram, echo=TRUE} ## Read in data and threshold table path <- system.file("extdata", "Amplitudes/", package="PoDCall") ampData <- importAmplitudeData(dataDirectory=path) thresholdTable <- thrTable ## Select channel and well to plot ch <- 1 # target channel well_id <- names(ampData)[1] # First well in list ## Plot title plotTitle <- paste0(well_id, ", Ch", ch) ## Create plot podcallHistogram(channelData=ampData[[well_id]][,ch], thr=thresholdTable[well_id, "thr_target"], channel=ch, plotId=plotTitle) ``` ## `podcallMultiplot()` takes a list of data frames with amplitude data, one per well, and their respective thresholds as arguments and returns faceted scatter plots suitable for comparing wells. ```{r comparison-plot, echo=TRUE} ## Read in data and threshold table path <- system.file("extdata", "Amplitudes/", package="PoDCall") ampData <- importAmplitudeData(dataDirectory=path) thresholdTable <- thrTable ## Channel to plot ch <- 1 ## Create comparison plot podcallMultiplot(plateData=ampData, thresholds=thresholdTable[names(ampData),], channel=ch) ``` # PoDCall shiny application PoDCall does also include an application powered by shiny that launches in a web browser. The application provides a user friendly and interactive interface to the functionality of PoDCall. To start the app: ```{r launch-shiny-app, eval=FALSE} podcallShiny() ``` # PodCall example data There are some amplitude files and a sample sheet included in the package that are intended to be used to run examples and to try out the functionality of PoDCall. The data files are from a real experiment performed with cell line samples. There is also a threshold table computed from the example data included. PoDCall takes a few minutes to run due to bootstrapping, and this table is used in examples for functions where threshold is an argument. ## Cell Line Amplitude Data The cell line amplitude data files can be found in the "extdata" subdirectory of the package directory and can be found using `system.file()`: ```{r example-data, eval=TRUE} ## Path to files path <- system.file("extdata", "Amplitudes/", package="PoDCall") ## List files list.files(path) ``` The control assay used for the samples in the example data files is an assay developed in-house called 4Plex [H. Pharo et al](http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13148-018-0456-5). ## Calculated Threshold Table The already calculated threshold table is instantly available when PoDCall is loaded, and is available as an object called `thrTable`. See `?thrTable` for help file with documentation on the table. ```{r example-thresholds, echo=TRUE} ## The threshold table thrTable ``` # Session info Here is the output of `sessionInfo()` on the system on which this document was compiled ```{r session-info, eval=TRUE} sessionInfo() ```