Oscope identifies oscillatory genes in unsynchronized single-cell RNA-seq experiments

Oscope enables the detection of oscillating genes and phasing of cell states from snapshot single-cell RNA-seq data. Oscillatory gene expression is fundamental to development, but technologies for monitoring expression oscillations are limited. We have developed a statistical approach called Oscope to identify and characterize the transcriptional dynamics of oscillating genes in single-cell RNA-seq data from an unsynchronized cell population. Applying Oscope to a number of data sets, we demonstrated its utility and also identified a potential artifact in the Fluidigm C1 platform.