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Characterization of cell fate probabilities in single-cell data with Palantir
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
Single-cell RNA sequencing studies of differentiating systems have raised fundamental questions regarding the discrete versus continuous nature of both differentiation and cell fate. Here we present Palantir, an algorithm that models trajectories of differentiating cells by treating cell fate as a probabilistic process and leverages entropy to measure cell plasticity along the trajectory. Palantir generates a high-resolution pseudo-time ordering of cells and, for each cell state, assigns a probability of differentiating into each terminal state. We apply our algorithm to human bone marrow single-cell RNA sequencing data and detect important landmarks of hematopoietic differentiation. Palantir's resolution enables the identification of key transcription factors that drive lineage fate choice and closely track when cells lose plasticity. We show that Palantir outperforms existing algorithms in identifying cell lineages and recapitulating gene expression trends during differentiation, is generalizable to diverse tissue types, and is well-suited to resolving less-studied differentiating systems.
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“Gene expression trends along pseudotime were calculated based on branch probabilities and generalized additive models, showing the stepwise transcriptional progression of endodermal and endothelial lineages along pseudotime using Palantir44.”
From Cell diversity and plasticity during atrioventricular heart valve EMTs (2023) · cites this paper as [44]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Based on the average diffusion distance10,11 from the bipotent inner cell mass (ICM), TE cells were substantially further away (13.9) from ICM than either EPI (0.41) or PrE (2.0) (Extended Data Fig. 4b, Methods)”
From The emergent landscape of the mouse gut endoderm at single-cell resolution (2019) · cites this paper as [11]
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In the citing paper
“A key distinguishing feature of Palantir is that rather than treating lineage decisions as bifurcations, cell fate choices are modeled as continuous probabilistic processes.”
From The emergent landscape of the mouse gut endoderm at single-cell resolution (2019) · cites this paper as [11]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Palantir results however have been shown to be robust to these parameters10,11,”
From The emergent landscape of the mouse gut endoderm at single-cell resolution (2019) · cites this paper as [11]
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In the citing paper
“The high resolution achieved by Palantir allows detailed mapping of gene expression trends and dynamics that are correlated with changes in lineage potential10,11.”
From The emergent landscape of the mouse gut endoderm at single-cell resolution (2019) · cites this paper as [11]
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In the citing paper
“( E ) Violin plot of pseudotime (47) values for OPCs and Oligos colored by condition (**** p<0.0001, unpaired t-test).”
From Molecular and cellular processes disrupted in the early postnatal Down syndrome prefrontal cortex (2026) · cites this paper as [47]
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In the citing paper
“Cells labeled as exVE and emVE based on expression of known markers (plot on the left), match expected Palantir branch probabilities (4 plots on the right).”
From The emergent landscape of the mouse gut endoderm at single-cell resolution (2019) · cites this paper as [11]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn the citing paper
“In the Setty et al. dataset67, the ME lineage phenotype is reproduced, but the granulocyte phenotype is not observed (Supplementary Fig. 14b).”
From Dissecting cell identity via network inference and in silico gene perturbation (2023) · cites this paper as [67]
In the citing paper
“Although the ME lineage phenotype is not detected using the Setty et al. dataset67, the GM lineage phenotype is successfully reproduced (Supplementary Fig. 14c).”
From Dissecting cell identity via network inference and in silico gene perturbation (2023) · cites this paper as [67]
In the citing paper
“we first map the cells from high dimensional transcriptomic space to a low dimensional rescaled diffusion space (Setty 2019)61, where phenotype distance between cells are more faithfully represented”
From Occult polyclonality of preclinical pancreatic cancer models drives in vitro evolution (2022) · cites this paper as [61]
In the citing paper
“we first map the cells from high dimensional transcriptomic space to a low dimensional rescaled diffusion space (Setty 2019)61, where phenotype distance between cells are more faithfully represented”
From Occult polyclonality of preclinical pancreatic cancer models drives in vitro evolution (2022) · cites this paper as Setty 2019
In the citing paper
“However, it has been proposed that rescaling the diffusion coordinates by their eigenvalues can circumvent this issue61.”
From Occult polyclonality of preclinical pancreatic cancer models drives in vitro evolution (2022) · cites this paper as [61]
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Citations
Cites
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Reversed graph embedding resolves complex single-cell trajectories
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Droplet barcoding for single-cell transcriptomics applied to embryonic stem cells
Klein, A. M., Mazutis, L., Akartuna, I., Tallapragada, N., Veres, A., Li, V., Peshkin, L., Weitz, D. A., & Kirschner, M. W. (2015) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.04.044 · Cited by 3,356
Finak, G., McDavid, A., Yajima, M., Deng, J., Gersuk, V., Shalek, A. K., Slichter, C. K., Miller, H. W., McElrath, M. J., Prlic, M., et al. (2015) · Genome Biology · doi:10.1186/s13059-015-0844-5 · Cited by 3,159
Slingshot: cell lineage and pseudotime inference for single-cell transcriptomics
Street, K., Risso, D., Fletcher, R. B., Das, D., Ngai, J., Yosef, N., Purdom, E., & Dudoit, S. (2018) · BMC Genomics · doi:10.1186/s12864-018-4772-0 · Cited by 3,159
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Chromatin Potential Identified by Shared Single-Cell Profiling of RNA and Chromatin
Ma, S., Zhang, B., LaFave, L. M., Earl, A. S., Chiang, Z., Hu, Y., Ding, J., Brack, A., Kartha, V. K., Tay, T., et al. (2020) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2020.09.056 · Cited by 1,146
Transfer learning enables predictions in network biology
Theodoris, C. V., Xiao, L., Chopra, A., Chaffin, M. D., Al Sayed, Z. R., Hill, M. C., Mantineo, H., Brydon, E. M., Zeng, Z., Liu, X. S., et al. (2023) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06139-9 · Cited by 1,193
CellRank for directed single-cell fate mapping
Lange, M., Bergen, V., Klein, M., Setty, M. N., Reuter, B., Bakhti, M., Lickert, H., Ansari, M., Gote-Schniering, J., Schiller, H. B., et al. (2022) · Nature Methods · doi:10.1038/s41592-021-01346-6 · Cited by 783
“Palantir 21 identified terminal beta and delta states.”
InfluentialSelf-citationDissecting cell identity via network inference and in silico gene perturbation
Kamimoto, K., Stringa, B., Hoffmann, C. M., Jindal, K., Solnica-Krezel, L., & Morris, S. A. (2023) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05688-9 · Cited by 677
Metadata
- Authors
- Setty, M., Kiseliovas, V., Levine, J., Gayoso, A., Mazutis, L., & Pe’er, D.
- Affiliations
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pe’er, Dana
- Venue
- Nature Biotechnology
- Published
- 2019-03-21
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 451-460
- ISSN
- 0733-222X (ISSN-L)
- 1087-0156
- 1546-1696
- PMC
- PMC7549125
- OpenAlex
- W2925075625
- Semantic Scholar
- c1552fe84c6f55a1c006c3d7c2eed671d1304008
- Cited by
- 833
- References
- 81
- Citations by year
- 2026: 181 · 2025: 177 · 2024: 157 · 2023: 107 · 2022: 92 · 2021: 55 · 2020: 45 · 2019: 18
- FWCI
- 17.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2019-09-18)
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature Biotechnology (publishedVersion)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (CA008748)
- National Cancer Institute (R01CA164729, P30CA008748)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (DP1HD084071)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gene Regulatory Network Analysis
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gene expression and cancer classification
- Keywords
- cell differentiation trajectories, cellular plasticity, entropy (information theory), hematopoietic differentiation, bone marrow, transcription factors, single-cell RNA sequencing, single-cell trajectory analysis
- MeSH terms
- Algorithms, Animals, Biotechnology, Bone Marrow Cells, Cell Differentiation, Erythropoiesis, Hematopoiesis, Humans, Markov Chains, Models, Biological, Models, Statistical, Sequence Analysis, RNA, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Cell Lineage, Mice, Single-Cell Analysis
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