Can MitoTracer help find important mitochondrial mutations for accurate lineage reconstruction?

Original title: MitoTracer facilitates the identification of informative mitochondrial mutations for precise lineage reconstruction

Authors: Xuexin Yu,Jing Hu,Yuhao Tan,Mingyao Pan,Hongyi Zhang,Bo Li

The article introduces a computational algorithm called “MitoTracer” that is able to accurately identify informative mitochondrial (MT) mutations and trace lineages in single cell sequencing data. The challenge in lineage tracing based on MT mutations is the automated identification of relevant mutations. MitoTracer is an open-source tool that addresses this challenge and outperforms existing methods in terms of sensitivity and specificity. It is compatible with various single cell sequencing platforms. To demonstrate its effectiveness, MitoTracer was applied to a cancer evolution dataset, where it revealed the genes associated with resistance to BRAF inhibitors in BRAF-mutated cancer cells. This tool provides researchers with a valuable resource for identifying meaningful MT mutations and tracing cell lineages. The authors of the article declare no competing interests.

Original article: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.22.568285v1