Comprehensive genome-wide analysis of single cells by combining efficient whole genome amplification with subsequent high throughput sequencing

The analysis of genetic heterogeneity among single cancer cells is key to understand cancer evolution and therapeutic failure of systemic cancer therapy. This study presents an approach, combining a whole genome amplification (WGA) method with 2nd generation sequencing of a single cell, leading to coverage of 70% of the human genome. It comprises three whole genome paired-end sequencing runs of the well characterized REH cell line, resembling a pediatric ETV6/RUNX1 positive B cell leukemia. WGA was performed at the Department of General-, Visceral- and Pediatric Surgery, Medical Faculty, University of Duesseldorf, Germany The sequencing was done in the Laboratory for Leukemia Research (Borkhardt lab) at the Department of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Clinical Immunology, Medical Faculty, University of Duesseldorf, Germany