SoupX removes ambient RNA contamination from droplet-based single-cell RNA sequencing data
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
Background: Droplet-based single-cell RNA sequence analyses assume that all acquired RNAs are endogenous to cells. However, any cell-free RNAs contained within the input solution are also captured by these assays. This sequencing of cell-free RNA constitutes a background contamination that confounds the biological interpretation of single-cell transcriptomic data. Results: We demonstrate that contamination from this "soup" of cell-free RNAs is ubiquitous, with experiment-specific variations in composition and magnitude. We present a method, SoupX, for quantifying the extent of the contamination and estimating "background-corrected" cell expression profiles that seamlessly integrate with existing downstream analysis tools. Applying this method to several datasets using multiple droplet sequencing technologies, we demonstrate that its application improves biological interpretation of otherwise misleading data, as well as improving quality control metrics. Conclusions: We present SoupX, a tool for removing ambient RNA contamination from droplet-based single-cell RNA sequencing experiments. This tool has broad applicability, and its application can improve the biological utility of existing and future datasets.
AI snapshot
Written from the paper’s full text.
TL;DR
SoupX is a method and R package that estimates and removes ambient cell-free RNA contamination from droplet-based scRNA-seq by using empty droplets to define a background profile and estimating a contamination fraction. Across species-mixing, PBMC, kidney tumour, and fetal liver datasets, correction improved marker specificity and biological interpretation.
Key findings
- Ambient RNA contamination was ubiquitous: in 10X species-mixing data, ∼1% of transcripts were cross-species contamination, providing a lower bound, with true contamination later estimated at ∼2%; background profiles correlated with cell aggregates at Pearson 0.71–0.96 (median 0.86).
- SoupX reduced cross-species contamination by a factor of ≥2 and usually an order of magnitude, while correct-species expression was effectively unchanged.
- In PBMCs, automated contamination estimation gave 6% and an IG-gene-based estimate gave ∼5%; correction increased marker fold-change contrast and improved LYZ specificity for mononuclear phagocytes.
- In kidney tumour data, correction removed haemoglobin expression from non-red-blood cells, identified collagen expression in T/MNP clusters as contamination, increased cross-batch entropy, and yielded 2 fewer clusters; in fetal liver, HBB was confirmed as erythroid-specific and GYPA expression in EI macrophages as genuine.
Methods
- SoupX has three steps: estimate the ambient mRNA profile from empty droplets with <Nemp UMIs (best correlation at Nemp < 10), estimate or manually set the contamination fraction using genes/cells assumed to have no endogenous expression or an automated marker-based procedure, and correct counts via a multinomial likelihood, optionally redistributing cluster-level corrected counts.
- Datasets included 10X and DropSeq species-mixing experiments, PBMC data, a kidney tumour dataset (7 tumours across 10 channels in the Results; the Introduction describes 12 kidney tumour biopsies), and 40 channels of human fetal liver data.
- Analyses compared corrected and uncorrected data using Seurat tSNE representations, cluster membership, marker gene fold changes, marker sensitivity, and cross-batch entropy.
Limitations
- The paper states that best results require a user-specified set of genes and cells where no endogenous expression can be assumed; when this is not possible, the automated method requires clustering and may not always have an appropriate gene set.
- The paper notes that a constant contamination fraction within a channel is assumed in most experiments, and that manual contamination setting can be used if estimates are deemed inaccurate or overcorrection is desired.
- Evident from the text: the method assumes empty-droplet profiles represent the background and that background composition is shared across cells; evaluation is limited to the datasets analysed, and the paper has no formal limitations section.
Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
15 of 16 cited sources checked · 10 supported · 0 flagged · accuracy not yet measured
- Premisecitation
Violations of the single-cell-per-droplet assumption are common in practice.
“Violations of this assumption, which may distort the interpretation of scRNA-seq data, are common in practice.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim2 of 3 sources checked- cites [11] Gayoso, 2017, DoubletDetection: Identifying technical error in single-cell RNA-sequencing data
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- cites [12] Ilicic, 2016, Classification of low quality cells from single-cell RNA-seq data, Genome Biol source
The Background (page unavailable) says some scRNA-seq capture sites, including droplets, may contain multiple cells and that these cells can lead to misinterpretation. The Discussion (page unavailable) reports up to 30% multiple-cell captures in a Fluidigm study, but that figure concerns microfluidic capture sites, not droplets; the paper does not establish that single-cell-per-droplet violations are common. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured - cites [13] Wolock, 2019, Scrublet: Computational identification of cell doublets in single-cell transcriptomic data, Cell Syst source
- Premisecitation
Cell-free RNAs contained within the input solution are captured by droplet-based scRNA-seq assays.
“However, any cell-free RNAs contained within the input solution are also captured by these assays.”
- Also stated in: § Introduction · boosted
“It is recognized that these contaminating non-endogenous RNAs are present even within datasets of the highest quality [2].”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 1 sources checked- cites [2] Zheng, 2017, Massively parallel digital transcriptional profiling of single cells, Nat Commun source
- Also stated in: § Introduction · boosted
- Findingcitation
A similar cross-species contamination effect is seen in Drop-Seq-based species-mixing data.
“A similar effect is seen in the Drop-Seq–based species-mixing data (Supplementary Fig. S3).”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 1 sources checked- cites [14] Macosko, 2015, Highly parallel genome-wide expression profiling of individual cells using nanoliter droplets, Cell source
- Findingcitation
In 10X species-mixing data, droplets containing human or mouse cells show that approximately 1% of observed transcripts are cross-species contamination.
“Droplets containing human (top right) and mouse (bottom right) cells show that ∼1% of observed transcripts are cross-species contamination.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 1 sources checked- cites [2] Zheng, 2017, Massively parallel digital transcriptional profiling of single cells, Nat Commun source
- Findingown data
The batch-mixing entropy of the kidney tumour data is increased after background correction.
“This analysis shows that the batch-mixing entropy is increased after background correction, indicating better mixing between samples (Fig. 4E).”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 1 sources checked- cites [20] Haghverdi, 2018, Batch effects in single-cell RNA-sequencing data are corrected by matching mutual nearest neighbors, Nat Biotechnol source
The Results section on the pancreas data set reports higher batch-mixing entropy after MNN batch correction than in uncorrected data. The Online Methods section also specifies that entropy was assessed in pancreas data sets. Neither passage supports the claim that entropy increased in kidney tumour data after background correction; no page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
- Premisecitation
The capture efficiency of molecules in droplet-based experiments varies by as much as an order of magnitude.
“This is likely a consequence of the fact that the capture efficiency of molecules in droplet-based experiments varies by as much as an order of magnitude [17].”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 1 sources checked- cites [17] Svensson, 2017, Power analysis of single-cell RNA-sequencing experiments, Nat Methods source
The Results section on technical sensitivity reports substantial variation across scRNA-seq protocols, including a droplet-based protocol, and high within-protocol variability. But it does not establish that molecular capture efficiency in droplet-based experiments varies by an order of magnitude. The Discussion’s one-order-of-magnitude figure compares endogenous RNA with spike-ins, not variation among droplet experiments; page numbers were unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
- Findingown data
Ambient RNA contamination from cell-free RNAs is ubiquitous in droplet-based scRNA-seq data.
“We demonstrate that contamination from this "soup" of cell-free RNAs is ubiquitous, with experiment-specific variations in composition and magnitude.”
- Also stated in: § Introduction · plain
“Here, we show that this "soup" of cell-free mRNAs is ubiquitous and non-negligible in magnitude.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Also stated in: § Introduction · plain
- Findingown data
The magnitude of ambient RNA contamination is non-negligible.
“Here, we show that this "soup" of cell-free mRNAs is ubiquitous and non-negligible in magnitude.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
Applying SoupX improves quality control metrics.
“as well as improving quality control metrics”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
The composition and magnitude of ambient RNA contamination vary by experiment.
“with experiment-specific variations in composition and magnitude”
- Also stated in: § Introduction · plain
“Because the character and extent of ambient mRNA contamination varies by experiment”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Also stated in: § Introduction · plain
- Findingown data
Applying SoupX to several datasets using multiple droplet sequencing technologies improves biological interpretation of otherwise misleading data.
“Applying this method to several datasets using multiple droplet sequencing technologies, we demonstrate that its application improves biological interpretation of otherwise misleading data, as well as improving quality control metrics.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingreasoning
Contamination is preferentially removed from genes closest to the background expression (i.e., genes with low levels of expression).
“Contamination is preferentially removed from genes closest to the background expression (i.e., genes with low levels of expression), meaning that setting a higher global contamination rate is unlikely to completely remove the expression of genes that are truly markers of a cell.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
Correction for background contamination systematically increased the fold change contrast for marker genes, making them more specific to the cluster they were markers of.
“We compared the fold changes for the same genes in the same clusters before and after correction and found that correction for background contamination systematically increased the fold change contrast for marker genes (Fig. 3D).”
- Also stated in: § Application of SoupX to PBMC Data · plain
“That is, correction for background contamination made marker genes more specific to the cluster they were markers of.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Also stated in: § Application of SoupX to PBMC Data · plain
- Findingown data
There is little variation in the contamination fraction within a channel, in both the 10X and DropSeq data.
“Figure 2C reveals that there is little variation in the contamination fraction within a channel, in both the 10X and DropSeq data.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim- The authors state this as an assumption: For species-mixing genes/cells (human transcripts in mouse cells and vice versa), mg,c = 0.
- Findingown data
The contamination fraction estimates from using haemoglobin genes and from the automated method showed good agreement in the kidney tumour data.
“We compared the resulting estimates of the contamination fraction with those obtained by applying the automated method and found good agreement (Supplementary Fig. S6).”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Findingreasoning
The heuristic suggests that immunoglobulin (IG) genes, such as IGKC and IGLC2, are both highly expressed in the soup and highly specific in their expression, making them good candidates for estimating the contamination fraction in this dataset.
“This heuristic suggests that immunoglobulin (IG) genes, such as IGKC and IGLC2, are both highly expressed in the soup and highly specific in their expression, making them good candidates for estimating the contamination fraction in this dataset.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
Application of SoupX shows that HBB is only truly expressed in erythroid cell types in human fetal liver data.
“Application of SoupX allows this explanation to be ruled out, showing that HBB is only truly expressed in erythroid cell types (Fig. 4F).”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
Accounting for contamination improves the specificity of marker genes.
“We find that accounting for contamination improves the specificity of marker genes, identifies new markers, and is essential for the correct biological interpretation of complex experiments.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingreasoning
The contamination fraction is still approximately constant across most of the UMI range.
“However, the contamination fraction is still approximately constant across most of the UMI range.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
Correction of ambient RNA contamination changes the pattern of expression of LYZ in the PBMC data.
“As a specific example, we found that correction of ambient RNA contamination changes the pattern of expression of LYZ in the PBMC data (Fig. 3E and F).”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
SoupX completely removes the expression of haemoglobin genes from all cells except red blood cells.
“For example, while it is unlikely to be biologically misinterpreted, SoupX completely removes the expression of haemoglobin genes from all cells except red blood cells (Fig. 4C).”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Findingown data
Additional genes were found as markers in the corrected data that were not identified in the uncorrected data.
“Furthermore, additional genes were found as markers in the corrected data that were not identified in the uncorrected data.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Findingown data
The fraction of expression derived from genes corresponding to the correct species was effectively unchanged for all cells after SoupX correction.
“By contrast the fraction of expression derived from genes corresponding to the correct species was effectively unchanged for all cells.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
The automated method gives comparable results to the manual method.
“We show that this automation gives comparable results to the manual method.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
Before correction for background contamination, a large number of cells outside the erythroid lineage express erythroid markers such as HBB in combination with other cell type markers in human fetal liver data.
“Before correction for background contamination, a large number of cells outside the erythroid (red blood cell) lineage express erythroid markers such as HBB in combination with other cell type markers.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingreasoning
The true contamination rate is approximately 2%.
“we later show that the true contamination rate is \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{upgreek} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $\sim 2\%$\end{document}”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Findingown data
EI macrophage populations express the erythroid gene GYPA.
“One example of this is the expression of the erythroid gene GYPA in the EI macrophage populations, which could be the consequence of either contamination or a biological phenomenon.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Findingown data
Application of SoupX confirms that GYPA expression in EI macrophage populations represents genuine gene expression and not ambient RNA contamination.
“Application of SoupX confirms that this expression represents genuine gene expression and not ambient RNA contamination (Supplementary Fig. S9).”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Findingown data
Correction of ambient RNA contamination improved the specificity of LYZ as a marker gene for mononuclear phagocytes (MNPs) by removing its expression from all other cell types while leaving its expression in MNPs unchanged.
“This improved the specificity of LYZ as a marker gene for mononuclear phagocytes (MNPs) (Fig. 3E) by removing its expression from all other cell types, while leaving its expression in MNPs unchanged (Fig. 3F).”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
Accounting for contamination identifies new markers.
“We find that accounting for contamination improves the specificity of marker genes, identifies new markers, and is essential for the correct biological interpretation of complex experiments.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
The cluster of T and MNPs in the kidney tumour data express the collagen genes COL1A1, COL1A2, and COL3A1 before background correction.
“An example of this is the cluster of T and MNPs in Fig. 4A and D, which express the collagen genes COL1A1, COL1A2, and COL3A1 before background correction.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
SoupX is robust to small inaccuracies in the estimation of the global contamination rate.
“We also find that our method is robust to small inaccuracies in the estimation of the global contamination rate (Supplementary Fig. S4).”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Findingown data
The expression ratio of marker genes between the cluster they mark and all other cells increased systematically after correction for background contamination in the kidney tumour data.
“Furthermore, we found that the expression ratio of marker genes between the cluster they mark and all other cells increased systematically after correction for background contamination (Supplementary Fig. S7).”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingreasoning
Red blood cells express haemoglobin genes in such extreme abundance that they can be trivially identified by comparing the ratio of observed haemoglobin genes to that present in the background contamination.
“Finally, red blood cells express haemoglobin genes in such extreme abundance that they can be trivially identified by comparing the ratio of observed haemoglobin genes to that present in the background contamination (Supplementary Fig. S10).”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Findingreasoning
The automated contamination estimation procedure estimates the true contamination fraction by using all high-quality marker genes identified in the data.
“By using all high-quality marker genes identified in the data to independently estimate the contamination fraction, this method estimates the true contamination fraction by assuming that inaccurate estimates of the contamination fraction are not strongly correlated (i.e., there is no preferred, incorrect estimate).”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim- The authors state this as an assumption: Inaccurate estimates of the contamination fraction are not strongly correlated (i.e., there is no preferred, incorrect estimate).
- Findingown data
SoupX contamination removal decreased mouse expression in human cells (and vice versa) by a factor of ≥2 and usually an order of magnitude in both 10X and DropSeq experiments.
“This analysis revealed (Fig. 2D) that mouse expression in human cells (and vice versa) was decreased by a factor of ≥2 and usually an order of magnitude by the SoupX contamination removal in both 10X and DropSeq experiments.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
When clustering information is provided, the redistribution of counts from cluster level to individual cells automatically removes more counts from contaminated cells, even when only a global estimate of the contamination is given.
“When clustering information is provided, the redistribution of counts from cluster level to individual cells automatically removes more counts from contaminated cells, even when only a global estimate of the contamination is given (Supplementary Fig. S4; Supplementary Methods).”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Findingown data
Correction of background contamination changed the distribution of expression of many genes across cells.
“We found that the correction of background contamination changed the distribution of expression of many genes across cells in a way that would alter the biological interpretation.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
Cell-free RNA is omnipresent in droplet-based scRNA-seq data.
“We have shown that cell-free RNA is omnipresent in droplet-based scRNA-seq data and have proposed a method to identify, quantify, and remove its contaminating effect.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
SoupX identifies that a high fraction of collagen gene expression in the T and MNP cluster is due to contamination.
“However, our method identifies that a high fraction of this expression is due to contamination (Fig. 4D).”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Findingown data
In the data, the greatest contamination occurs in droplets with the fewest UMIs (Fig. 2C).
“Consistent with this, Fig. 2C shows that the greatest contamination occurs in droplets with the fewest UMIs.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Interpretationreasoning
Ambient mRNAs may significantly confound the biological interpretation of scRNA-seq data.
“ambient mRNAs may significantly confound the biological interpretation of scRNA-seq data.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim- Rests on an assumption: Ambient mRNA contamination is increased in necrotic or complex samples.
- Interpretationnone given
SoupX removes ambient RNA contamination from droplet-based single-cell RNA sequencing experiments.
“We present SoupX, a tool for removing ambient RNA contamination from droplet-based single-cell RNA sequencing experiments.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Premisenone given
Observed UMI counts in droplet scRNA-seq are a mixture of mRNAs produced by the captured cell and background contamination.
“However, the observed counts arise from a mixture of mRNAs produced by the captured cell and those present due to background contamination.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Interpretationreasoning
Sequencing of cell-free RNA constitutes a background contamination that confounds the biological interpretation of single-cell transcriptomic data.
“This sequencing of cell-free RNA constitutes a background contamination that confounds the biological interpretation of single-cell transcriptomic data.”
- Also stated in: § Introduction · hedged
“ambient mRNAs may significantly confound the biological interpretation of scRNA-seq data.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Also stated in: § Introduction · hedged
- Interpretationreasoning
The cross-species contamination rate provides a lower bound on the total rate of ambient mRNA contamination because there is also an additional contribution from contaminating mRNAs from the same species.
“This rate of cross-species contamination provides a lower bound on the total rate of ambient mRNA contamination because there will also be an additional contribution due to contaminating mRNAs from the same species”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Interpretationreasoning
For most applications, the consequences of manually setting an unrealistically high contamination rate are likely to be minimal.
“For most applications, the consequences of manually setting an unrealistically high contamination rate are likely to be minimal.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Interpretationreasoning
Two identical cells captured in different experiments will appear different owing to differences in their cell-free RNA composition.
“That is, 2 identical cells captured in different experiments will appear different owing to differences in their cell-free RNA composition.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim- Rests on an assumption: The ambient mRNA expression profile is experiment specific.
- Interpretationreasoning
Consistent estimates of the contamination fraction will be obtained for any sensible clustering of the data.
“As such, consistent estimates of the contamination fraction will be obtained for any sensible clustering of the data.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Interpretationown data
Application of SoupX rules out doublets as an explanation for widespread expression of multiple distinct markers in human fetal liver data.
“Application of SoupX allows this explanation to be ruled out, showing that HBB is only truly expressed in erythroid cell types (Fig. 4F).”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Interpretationown data
The change in gene expression distribution caused by background correction would alter biological interpretation.
“We found that the correction of background contamination changed the distribution of expression of many genes across cells in a way that would alter the biological interpretation.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Interpretationcitation
Variation due to capture efficiency is likely to swamp variation due to 'cell size' in most experiments, making constant contamination fraction a reasonable approximation.
“Thus variation due to capture efficiency is likely to swamp variation due to “cell size” in most experiments, making constant contamination fraction a reasonable approximation.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Interpretationreasoning
The additional step of performing the correction on counts aggregated at the cluster level and distributing corrected counts between cells in proportion to their size helps overcome the sparsity of scRNA-seq data, which would otherwise make it impossible to distinguish a single count due to contamination from a single count due to endogenous expression in many circumstances.
“This additional step helps overcome the sparsity of scRNA-seq data, which would otherwise make it impossible to distinguish a single count due to contamination from a single count due to endogenous expression in many circumstances.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Interpretationown data
Cell-free contamination represents an approximately uniform sampling of the cells in the sequencing batch (i.e., channel).
“The strength of the correlation implies that cell-free contamination represents an approximately uniform sampling of the cells in the sequencing batch (i.e., channel).”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Interpretationown data
Misattribution of gene expression to cell types that do not truly express them could lead to false conclusions.
“In other cases, the misattribution of gene expression to cell types that do not truly express them could lead to false conclusions.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Interpretationreasoning
Haemoglobin genes are often ubiquitously present in the background.
“As such, haemoglobin genes are often ubiquitously present in the background.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Interpretationreasoning
Cells whose IG expression was significantly greater than in the background contamination (Poisson test, false discovery rate 0.05) represent cells endogenously expressing IG.
“These represent cells endogenously expressing IG.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Interpretationreasoning
Accounting for contamination is essential for the correct biological interpretation of complex experiments.
“We find that accounting for contamination improves the specificity of marker genes, identifies new markers, and is essential for the correct biological interpretation of complex experiments.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim - Interpretationown data
Cell-free mRNA contamination is present even in highly controlled experiments.
“These observations demonstrate that cell-free mRNA contamination is present even in highly controlled experiments.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Interpretationreasoning
Setting a higher global contamination rate is unlikely to completely remove the expression of genes that are truly markers of a cell.
“Contamination is preferentially removed from genes closest to the background expression (i.e., genes with low levels of expression), meaning that setting a higher global contamination rate is unlikely to completely remove the expression of genes that are truly markers of a cell.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Interpretationreasoning
SoupX application can improve the biological utility of existing and future datasets.
“its application can improve the biological utility of existing and future datasets.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim - Interpretationreasoning
Background contamination likely creates batch effects.
“Because the ambient mRNA expression profile is experiment specific, we reasoned that background contamination likely creates batch effects.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim- Rests on an assumption: The ambient mRNA expression profile is experiment specific.
- Interpretationown data
Application of SoupX can identify cell types where biologically unexpected combinations of genes represent genuine biological phenomena.
“Application of SoupX is also able to identify those cell types where biologically unexpected combinations of genes represent genuine biological phenomena.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim
- May combine two claims. 11
- Classified as probably not a substantial claim. 7
May combine two claims.
Study design and conductcitationThe species-mixing datasets allow direct identification of contaminating mRNAs and testing of SoupX's accuracy.
“We first investigate 2 “species mixing” datasets run on the Chromium 10X [2] and DropSeq [14] platforms, which allow us to directly identify contaminating mRNAs and test our method’s accuracy.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim2 of 2 sources checkedProbably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).
PremisecitationDecontX relies on accurate clustering of the data to estimate and remove the background without the need for gene counts from empty droplets.
“Finally, DecontX [23] relies on accurate clustering of the data to estimate and remove the background without the need for gene counts from empty droplets.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 1 sources checked- cites [23] Yang, 2003, Decontamination of ambient RNA in single-cell RNA-seq with DecontX, Genome Biol source
May combine two claims.
PremisecitationSolid-tissue experiments are frequently highly contaminated with red blood cells and red cell lysis is used to prepare the samples.
“For example, solid-tissue experiments are frequently highly contaminated with red blood cells and red cell lysis is used to prepare the samples [15].”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 1 sources checked- cites [15] Young, 2018, Single-cell transcriptomes from human kidneys reveal the cellular identity of renal tumors, Science source
The paper’s tissue-processing description (Abstract; page not provided) says kidney samples were made into viable single-cell solutions, but does not mention red-blood-cell contamination or red-cell lysis. Searches for red blood cells, erythrocyte lysis, and lysis buffer found no passage addressing either part of the claim. (LLM, conf=0.72)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
May combine two claims.
InterpretationcitationCellBender's deep generative model comes with a heavy computational cost compared to other tools, and its output provides an imputed cell profile rather than raw counts with the background subtracted off.
“This deep generative model comes with a heavy computational cost compared to other tools, and the output of the model (which in effect estimates mg, c for each cell type) provides an imputed cell profile rather than raw counts with the background “subtracted off,” which SoupX provides.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim1 of 1 sources checked- cites [22] Fleming, 2019, CellBender remove-background: a deep generative model for unsupervised removal of background noise from scRNA-seq datasets, bioRxiv source
Section 3.3.2 describes the output as a model-inferred, background-free expression-rate estimate that is subsequently quantized, supporting the distinction from simply subtracting background counts from raw counts. Section 3.2.1 reports runtimes of 30 minutes to several hours on a GPU, but does not compare computational cost with other tools; that comparative claim is unsupported. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).
PremisecitationCellBender uses a deep generative model to estimate shared expression patterns likely to represent distinct cell types while simultaneously removing contamination.
“Cell Bender [22] uses a deep generative model to estimate shared expression patterns likely to represent distinct cell types while simultaneously removing contamination.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 1 sources checked- cites [22] Fleming, 2019, CellBender remove-background: a deep generative model for unsupervised removal of background noise from scRNA-seq datasets, bioRxiv source
May combine two claims.
PremisecitationSoupOrCell uses the identification of conflicting genotypes to identify ambient RNA contamination, limiting its application to mixed-genotype experiments.
“SoupOrCell [21] uses the identification of conflicting genotypes to identify ambient RNA contamination, limiting its application to mixed-genotype experiments.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 1 sources checked- cites [21] Heaton, 2020, souporcell: Robust clustering of single-cell RNA-seq data by genotype without reference genotypes, Nat Methods source
May combine two claims.
InterpretationreasoningDecontX can be applied when empty droplet counts are not available but its results are potentially heavily dependent on the accuracy of the clustering provided.
“This allows DecontX to be applied when empty droplet counts are not available but also means that the results are potentially heavily dependent on the accuracy of the clustering provided.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 1 sources checked- cites [23] Yang, 2003, Decontamination of ambient RNA in single-cell RNA-seq with DecontX, Genome Biol source
May combine two claims.
Findingown dataIn the species-mixing experiment, any value of Nemp < 100 produces a good correlation between bg and true background expression, with the best correlation when Nemp < 10.
“The species-mixing experiment allows us to compare how accurately bg recapitulates the true background expression found within each cell, revealing that any value of Nemp < 100 produces a good correlation, with the best correlation given when Nemp < 10 (Supplementary Fig. S2).”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claimMay combine two claims.
Findingown dataIn kidney tumour data, applying SoupX and re-analysing with the same clustering parameters resulted in many cells changing cluster and 2 fewer clusters identified compared to uncorrected data.
“Applying SoupX and re-analysing the kidney tumour data revealed that, in contrast to the PBMC data, many cells changed cluster and with the same clustering parameters 2 fewer clusters were identified in the corrected data (Fig. 4B).”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claimMay combine two claims.
Findingown dataThe aggregate expression profile of all droplets containing cells and all droplets with ≤10 UMIs were highly correlated in the 10X species experiment, and high correlation was found in all other datasets considered (Pearson correlation 0.71-0.96, median 0.86).
“These 2 profiles were highly correlated in the 10X species experiment (Fig. 2B) with a high correlation found in all other datasets considered (Pearson correlation 0.71–0.96, median 0.86; Supplementary Table S2).”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim- The authors state this as an assumption: Droplets with ≤10 UMIs contain only ambient mRNAs.
Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing), S4 (based).
Findingnone givenRunning SoupX does not add appreciably to the computational cost of standard single-cell analyses.
“The output of the SoupX package is a corrected table of counts, which can be used as input for standard workflows, and running SoupX does not add appreciably to the computational cost of standard single-cell analyses.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claimMay combine two claims.
Findingown dataComparing cluster membership before and after correction revealed the same number of clusters was identified, but some cells changed which cluster they belonged to.
“Comparing cluster membership before and after correction revealed that the same number of clusters was identified, but some cells changed which cluster they belonged to (Fig. 3C).”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claimProbably not a substantial claim: may not pass S4 (based).
Premisenone givenGenes for which mg,c = 0 for a given cell are strong negative markers of the cell type c.
“The genes for which mg, c = 0 for a given cell are those genes that are strong negative markers of the cell type c.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claimMay combine two claims.
Interpretationnone givenSoupX is a method for quantifying the extent of ambient mRNA contamination and purifying the true, cell-specific signal from the observed mixture of cellular and exogenous mRNAs.
“We present SoupX, a method for quantifying the extent of ambient mRNA contamination whilst purifying the true, cell-specific signal from the observed mixture of cellular and exogenous mRNAs.”
- Also stated in: § Results · plain
“We present a method, SoupX, for quantifying the extent of the contamination and estimating "background-corrected" cell expression profiles that seamlessly integrate with existing downstream analysis tools.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim- Also stated in: § Results · plain
Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S4 (based).
Interpretationnone givenSoupX produces a modified table of counts that can be used in place of the original count matrix in any downstream analysis tool.
“SoupX produces a modified table of counts, which can be used in place of the original count matrix in any downstream analysis tool.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claimProbably not a substantial claim: may not pass S4 (based).
Interpretationnone givenSelecting an appropriate set of genes to estimate contamination will not always be possible.
“However, we recognize that selecting an appropriate set of genes to estimate contamination will not always be possible.”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claimProbably not a substantial claim: may not pass S2 (checkable).
Interpretationnone givenSoupX has broad applicability.
“This tool has broad applicability”
Quote in the paperNot a substantial claimMay combine two claims.
InterpretationreasoningSoupX can be applied generally, is computationally inexpensive, and does not depend heavily on accurate pre-annotation of input data.
“By contrast, SoupX can be applied generally, is computationally inexpensive, and does not depend heavily on accurate pre-annotation of input data.”
Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
The paper relies on this without support.
Ambient mRNA contamination is increased in necrotic or complex samples.
“with increased contamination in necrotic or complex samples”
The authors state this as an assumption.
Droplets with fewer than Nemp UMIs unambiguously do not contain cells.
“To estimate the background expression profile we consider all droplets with <Nemp UMIs, which we assume unambiguously do not contain cells.”
The authors state this as an assumption.
The relative abundance of genes that make up the background does not differ between cells.
“We assume that the relative abundance of genes that make up the background does not differ between cells”
The authors state this as an assumption.
There is a combination of genes and cells for which mg,c = 0 exists.
“To proceed, we assume that there is a combination of genes and cells for which mg, c = 0 exists.”
The authors state this as an assumption.
If it can be shown for any cell c in cluster P that mg,c > 0, then mg,c > 0 for all c ∈ P.
“If it can be shown for any cell c in cluster P that mg, c > 0, then it is assumed that mg, c > 0 for all c ∈ P (see Supplementary Fig. S1).”
The authors state this as an assumption.
For each strong marker, mg,c = 0 for all cells in clusters where the gene is not a marker.
“For each strong marker, it is assumed that mg, c = 0 for all cells in clusters where the gene is not a marker and the contamination fraction is estimated (Supplementary Fig. S1).”
The authors state this as an assumption.
Inaccurate estimates of the contamination fraction will have no preferred value while true estimates will cluster around the true value.
“To obtain a final value, it is assumed that inaccurate estimates will have no preferred value while true estimates will cluster around the true value.”
The authors state this as an assumption.
Droplets with ≤10 UMIs contain only ambient mRNAs.
“which we assumed to contain only ambient mRNAs”
The authors state this as an assumption.
For species-mixing genes/cells (human transcripts in mouse cells and vice versa), mg,c = 0.
“For these genes/cells it is assumed that mg, c = 0 and the contamination fraction is calculated using Equation 4.”
The authors state this as an assumption.
SoupX assumes a constant contamination fraction within a channel.
“SoupX assumes a constant contamination fraction within a channel.”
The paper relies on this without support.
In most experiments there is less power to determine cell-specific contamination fractions.
“In most experiments there is less power to determine cell-specific contamination fractions and so SoupX assumes a constant contamination fraction within a channel.”
The authors state this as an assumption.
Some genes can be assumed to be unexpressed in some cells (mg,c = 0).
“To confirm the accuracy of this estimate, we also calculated the background contamination rate using a set of genes that could be assumed to be unexpressed in some cells (i.e., where mg, c = 0).”
The paper relies on this without support.
Haemoglobin genes are highly specific to red blood cells.
“together with the knowledge that haemoglobin genes are highly specific to red blood cells.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The ambient mRNA expression profile is experiment specific.
“Because the ambient mRNA expression profile is experiment specific, we reasoned that background contamination likely creates batch effects.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Red blood cells are the only cells that produce haemoglobin under normal physiological conditions.
“Furthermore, red blood cells are the only cells that produce haemoglobin under normal physiological conditions, so for the set of haemoglobin genes, it is safe to assume that there is no cell endogenous expression for cells that are not red blood cells.”
The authors state this as an assumption.
For haemoglobin genes, there is no cell endogenous expression for cells that are not red blood cells.
“Furthermore, red blood cells are the only cells that produce haemoglobin under normal physiological conditions, so for the set of haemoglobin genes, it is safe to assume that there is no cell endogenous expression for cells that are not red blood cells.”
The authors state this as an assumption.
Inaccurate estimates of the contamination fraction are not strongly correlated (i.e., there is no preferred, incorrect estimate).
“By using all high-quality marker genes identified in the data to independently estimate the contamination fraction, this method estimates the true contamination fraction by assuming that inaccurate estimates of the contamination fraction are not strongly correlated (i.e., there is no preferred, incorrect estimate).”
The authors state this as an assumption.
For a chosen set of genes and cells, the only source of expression for these genes is background contamination.
“The best case for applying SoupX occurs when the user can specify a set of genes and cells where there is no cell endogenous expression, i.e., a set of genes and cells where it is safe to assume that the only source of expression for these genes is from background contamination.”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Ambient RNA contamination may distort transcriptomic profiles, leading to the underrepresentation of specific cell types or misclassification of cellular states.
“This contamination may distort transcriptomic profiles, leading to the underrepresentation of specific cell types or misclassification of cellular states[34, 37].”
From Comparative analysis of nuclei isolation methods for brain single-nucleus RNA sequencing (2026) · cites this paper as [37]
The Introduction (page not available) says ambient RNA can confound biological interpretation. In “Ambient RNA Confounds Interpretation in Complex Experiments” (page not available), correction changed many cells’ cluster assignments, and the authors describe how contaminating expression could lead to false conclusions about cells. These passages support distorted profiles and possible misclassification, but do not establish underrepresentation of specific cell types. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAmbient RNA contamination was removed using SoupX v1.6.2 with default parameters, except for Miedema samples where tfidfMin was adjusted to 0.8.
“Ambient RNA contamination was removed using the SoupX v1.6.2 package67 with default parameters, except for samples from Miedema et al.14 where tfidfMin was adjusted to 0.8 (default 1) due to the lower cellular complexity of the dataset (prior FACS).”
From CHIT1 at diagnosis predicts faster disability progression and reflects early microglial activation in multiple sclerosis (2024) · cites this paper as [67]
Accurate chromatin accessibility analysis depends on precise peak calling, because calling peaks across the entire cell population can inadvertently exclude peaks specific to smaller subpopulations.
“Accurate chromatin accessibility analysis depends on precise peak calling, as calling peaks across the entire cell population can inadvertently exclude those specific to smaller subpopulations (85).”
From Molecular and cellular processes disrupted in the early postnatal Down syndrome prefrontal cortex (2026) · cites this paper as [85]
The SoupX Method and Discussion describe ambient RNA contamination in single-cell RNA sequencing and the use of gene markers and clustering to estimate it. Searches for chromatin accessibility, peak calling, and subpopulation-specific peaks found no passage addressing the claimed risk of calling peaks across an entire cell population. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAmbient RNA contamination can cause cell-type-specific marker gene transcripts to be detectable in other cell populations, blending populations together.
“Ambient RNA contamination can lead to cell-type-specific marker gene transcripts being detectable also in other cell populations, which can blend different cell populations together21.”
From Best practices for single-cell analysis across modalities (2023) · cites this paper as [21]
Removing ambient RNA as an initial quality-control step improves downstream analyses for many tissues.
“one should consider removing ambient RNA as an initial analysis step in quality control to improve downstream analyses for many tissues21–23.”
From Best practices for single-cell analysis across modalities (2023) · cites this paper as [21]
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InfluentialHighly parallel genome-wide expression profiling of individual cells using nanoliter droplets.
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InfluentialSpatial reconstruction of single-cell gene expression data
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Single-cell transcriptomes from human kidneys reveal the cellular identity of renal tumors
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Self-citationSingle-cell barcoding and sequencing using droplet microfluidics
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Classification of low quality cells from single-cell RNA-seq data
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Decontamination of ambient RNA in single-cell RNA-seq with DecontX
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Decoding human fetal liver haematopoiesis
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Self-citationPower analysis of single-cell RNA-sequencing experiments
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Deep Sequencing in Microdissected Renal Tubules Identifies Nephron Segment–Specific Transcriptomes
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MethodSouporcell: robust clustering of single-cell RNA-seq data by genotype without reference genotypes
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Alevin efficiently estimates accurate gene abundances from dscRNA-seq data
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MethodFleming, S. J., Chaffin, M. D., Arduini, A., Akkad, A.-D., Banks, E., Marioni, J. C., Philippakis, A. A., Ellinor, P. T., & Babadi, M. (2019) · doi:10.1101/791699 · Cited by 164 · see citing works
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MethodSingle cell RNA sequencing of stem cell-derived retinal ganglion cells
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Self-citation
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Cited by
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“SoupX was utilized to reduce ambient RNA bias, using default parameters with pCut set to 0.3, and was applied to each sample before merging the count matrices (Young and Behjati, 2020).”
InfluentialCurrent best practices in single-cell RNA-seq analysis: a tutorial
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“The recently developed SoupX (preprint: Young & Behjati, 2018) uses this approach to directly correct the count data.”
MethodBest practices for single-cell analysis across modalities
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A cellular census of human lungs identifies novel cell states in health and in asthma
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Obesity Shapes Metabolism in the Tumor Microenvironment to Suppress Anti-Tumor Immunity
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An atlas of healthy and injured cell states and niches in the human kidney
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“These include tools for decontamination such as DecontX [38] or SoupX [39], tools for batch-effect removal such as Seurat [30] and Harmony [40], and many others.”
MethodMogilenko, D. A., Shpynov, O., Andhey, P. S., Arthur, L., Swain, A., Esaulova, E., Brioschi, S., Shchukina, I., Kerndl, M., Bambouskova, M., et al. (2021) · Immunity · doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2020.11.005 · Cited by 683 · see citing works
Cell profiling of mouse acute kidney injury reveals conserved cellular responses to injury
Kirita, Y., Wu, H., Uchimura, K., Wilson, P. C., & Humphreys, B. D. (2020) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2005477117 · Cited by 650 · see citing works
“Briefly, ambient RNA expression is estimated from the empty droplet pool (10 UMIs or less) with setting “ non-ExpressedGeneList ” to hemoglobin genes, followed by removing ambient RNA counts using the “ adjustCounts ” function with default parameters, according to the SoupX package (https://github.com/constantAmateur/…”
InfluentialDysregulation of brain and choroid plexus cell types in severe COVID-19
Yang, A. C., Kern, F., Losada, P. M., Agam, M. R., Maat, C. A., Schmartz, G. P., Fehlmann, T., Stein, J. A., Schaum, N., Lee, D. P., et al. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03710-0 · Cited by 620 · see citing works
Tumor and immune reprogramming during immunotherapy in advanced renal cell carcinoma
Bi, K., He, M. X., Bakouny, Z., Kanodia, A., Napolitano, S., Wu, J., Grimaldi, G., Braun, D. A., Cuoco, M. S., Mayorga, A., et al. (2021) · Cancer Cell · doi:10.1016/j.ccell.2021.02.015 · Cited by 613 · see citing works
Joint probabilistic modeling of single-cell multi-omic data with totalVI
Gayoso, A., Steier, Z., Lopez, R., Regier, J., Nazor, K. L., Streets, A., & Yosef, N. (2021) · Nature Methods · doi:10.1038/s41592-020-01050-x · Cited by 592 · see citing works
A lineage-resolved molecular atlas of C. elegans embryogenesis at single-cell resolution
Packer, J. S., Zhu, Q., Huynh, C., Sivaramakrishnan, P., Preston, E. A., Dueck, H. R., Stefanik, D. J., Tan, K., Trapnell, C., Kim, J., et al. (2019) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aax1971 · Cited by 539 · see citing works
Notch signalling drives synovial fibroblast identity and arthritis pathology
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Souporcell: robust clustering of single-cell RNA-seq data by genotype without reference genotypes
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Integrated Single-Cell Atlas of Endothelial Cells of the Human Lung
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Single-cell roadmap of human gonadal development
García‐Alonso, L., Lorenzi, V., Icoresi-Mazzeo, C., Alves-Lopes, J. P., Roberts, K., Sancho‐Serra, C., Engelbert, J., Marečková, M., Gruhn, W. H., Botting, R. A., et al. (2022) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04918-4 · Cited by 452 · see citing works
Applications of single-cell RNA sequencing in drug discovery and development
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Spatiotemporal immune zonation of the human kidney
Stewart, B. J., Ferdinand, J. R., Young, M. D., Mitchell, T. J., Loudon, K. W., Riding, A., Richoz, N., Frazer, G. L., Staniforth, J., Braga, F. A. V., et al. (2019) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aat5031 · Cited by 416 · see citing works
“We captured 114,113 droplets from mature kidneys, yielding 40,268 cells after rigorous quality control, as described previously (4, 5) (fig.”
MethodSelf-citationSingle-nucleus cross-tissue molecular reference maps toward understanding disease gene function
Eraslan, G., Drokhlyansky, E., Anand, S. K., Fiškin, E., Subramanian, A., Slyper, M., Wang, J., Wittenberghe, N. V., Rouhana, J. M., Waldman, J., et al. (2022) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.abl4290 · Cited by 396 · see citing works
Single-nucleus RNA-seq identifies transcriptional heterogeneity in multinucleated skeletal myofibers
Petrany, M. J., Swoboda, C. O., Sun, C., Chetal, K., Chen, X., Weirauch, M. T., Salomonis, N., & Millay, D. P. (2020) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20063-w · Cited by 403 · see citing works
Local and systemic responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adults
Yoshida, M., Worlock, K. B., Huang, N., Lindeboom, R. G. H., Butler, C. R., Kumasaka, N., Dominguez Conde, C., Mamanova, L., Bolt, L., Richardson, L., et al. (2022) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04345-x · Cited by 365 · see citing works
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Human distal lung maps and lineage hierarchies reveal a bipotent progenitor
Murthy, P. K. L., Sontake, V., Tata, A., Kobayashi, Y., Macadlo, L., Okuda, K., Conchola, A. S., Nakano, S., Gregory, S. G., Miller, L. A., et al. (2022) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04541-3 · Cited by 338 · see citing works
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Werba, G., Weissinger, D., Kawaler, E. A., Zhao, E., Kalfakakou, D., Dhara, S., Wang, L., Lim, H. B., Oh, G., Jing, X., et al. (2023) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36296-4 · Cited by 292 · see citing works
“Rawdatawereinitially fi lteredtoremoveambientRNAusingSoupX version 1.5.2 72 ; and cells were subsequently fi ltered to include only high-quality cells (as de fi ned by >500 detectable genes, >1500 unique molecular identi fi ers, and <15% of transcripts coming from mitochondrial genes).”
InfluentialGideon, H. P., Hughes, T. K., Tzouanas, C. N., Wadsworth, M. H., Tu, A. A., Gierahn, T. M., Peters, J. M., Hopkins, F. F., Wei, J.-R., Kummerlowe, C., et al. (2022) · Immunity · doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2022.04.004 · Cited by 278 · see citing works
“For each of these 13 cell types, we also performed further within cell-type subclustering; in these analyses, we only detected substructure among the T/NK and macrophage clusters (detailed below, STAR Methods).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialShami, A. N., Zheng, X., Munyoki, S. K., Ma, Q., Manske, G. L., Green, C. D., Sukhwani, M., Orwig, K. E., Li, J. Z., & Hammoud, S. S. (2020) · Developmental Cell · doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2020.05.010 · Cited by 277 · see citing works
Hughes, T. K., Wadsworth, M. H., Gierahn, T. M., Do, T. H., Weiss, D. I., Andrade, P. R., Ma, F., Silva, B. J. D. A., Shao, S., Tsoi, L. C., et al. (2020) · Immunity · doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2020.09.015 · Cited by 282 · see citing works
“Removal of Ambient RNA Contamination Correction for ambient RNA contamination was performed within each sample using SoupX (Young and Behjati, 2018).”
MethodInfluentialAdipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss
Hinte, L. C., Castellano‐Castillo, D., Ghosh, A., Melrose, K., Gasser, E., Noé, F., Massier, L., Dong, H., Sun, W., Hoffmann, A., et al. (2024) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08165-7 · Cited by 300 · see citing works
Seo, D.-O., O’Donnell, D., Jain, N., Ulrich, J. D., Herz, J., Li, Y., Lemieux, M., Cheng, J., Hu, H., Serrano, J. R., et al. (2023) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.add1236 · Cited by 254 · see citing works
Sensitive and powerful single-cell RNA sequencing using mcSCRB-seq
Bagnoli, J., Ziegenhain, C., Janjic, A., Wange, L. E., Vieth, B., Parekh, S., Geuder, J., Hellmann, I., & Enard, W. (2018) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05347-6 · Cited by 242 · see citing works
Untimely TGFβ responses in COVID-19 limit antiviral functions of NK cells
Witkowski, M., Tizian, C., Ferreira‐Gomes, M., Niemeyer, D., Jones, T. C., Heinrich, F., Frischbutter, S., Angermair, S., Hohnstein, T., Mattiola, I., et al. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04142-6 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
Mapping single-cell transcriptomes in the intra-tumoral and associated territories of kidney cancer
Li, R., Ferdinand, J. R., Loudon, K. W., Bowyer, G., Laidlaw, S., Muyas, F., Mamanova, L., Neves, J. B., Bolt, L., Fasouli, E. S., et al. (2022) · Cancer Cell · doi:10.1016/j.ccell.2022.11.001 · Cited by 242 · see citing works
“We used SoupX 59 to return an adjusted count matrix to account for ambient RNA contamination per channel using the adjustCounts() function.”
Self-citationA Single-Cell RNA Expression Map of Human Coronavirus Entry Factors
Singh, M., Bansal, V., & Feschotte, C. (2020) · Cell Reports · doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108175 · Cited by 239 · see citing works
“2) (Young and Behjati, 2018) was used to subtract the ambient RNA profiles from”
Characterization of the COPD alveolar niche using single-cell RNA sequencing
Sauler, M., McDonough, J. E., Adams, T. S., Kothapalli, N., Bärnthaler, T., Werder, R. B., Schupp, J. C., Nouws, J., Robertson, M. J., Coarfa, C., et al. (2022) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-022-28062-9 · Cited by 240 · see citing works
Benchmarking Computational Doublet-Detection Methods for Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Data
Xi, N. M., & Li, J. J. (2021) · Cell Systems · doi:10.1016/j.cels.2020.11.008 · Cited by 208 · see citing works
Cottam, M. A., Caslin, H. L., Winn, N. C., & Hasty, A. H. (2022) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-022-30646-4 · Cited by 216 · see citing works
Clarke, Z. A., Andrews, T. S., Atif, J., Pouyabahar, D., Innes, B. T., MacParland, S. A., & Bader, G. D. (2021) · Nature Protocols · doi:10.1038/s41596-021-00534-0 · Cited by 219 · see citing works
“It is possible to estimate and correct the background contamination using methods such as SoupX 88 , which looks for nonspeci fi c expression of cell-type markers, or CellBender 89 , which uses machine learning to learn and correct cell expression pro fi les.”
MethodProkaryotic single-cell RNA sequencing by in situ combinatorial indexing
Blattman, S. B., Jiang, W., Oikonomou, P., & Tavazoie, S. (2020) · Nature Microbiology · doi:10.1038/s41564-020-0729-6 · Cited by 214 · see citing works
A spatially resolved atlas of the human lung characterizes a gland-associated immune niche
Madissoon, E., Oliver, A. J., Kleshchevnikov, V., Wilbrey-Clark, A., Polanski, K., Richoz, N., Ribeiro Orsi, A., Mamanova, L., Bolt, L., Elmentaite, R., et al. (2023) · Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/s41588-022-01243-4 · Cited by 219 · see citing works
“0.0 algorithm 103 to remove ambient RNA contamination, according to the tutorial (https://github. com/constantAmateur/SoupX).”
InfluentialHe, P., Lim, K., Sun, D., Pett, J. P., Jeng, Q., Polański, K., Dong, Z., Bolt, L., Richardson, L., Mamanova, L., et al. (2022) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2022.11.005 · Cited by 221 · see citing works
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Cell transcriptomic atlas of the non-human primate Macaca fascicularis
Han, L., Wei, X., Liu, C., Volpe, G., Zhuang, Z., Zou, X., Wang, Z., Pan, T., Yuan, Y., Zhang, X., et al. (2022) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04587-3 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
Miao, Z., Balzer, M. S., Ma, Z., Liu, H., Wu, J., Shrestha, R., Arányi, T., Kwan, A., Kondo, A., Pontoglio, M., et al. (2021) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-021-22266-1 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
Normalizing and denoising protein expression data from droplet-based single cell profiling
Mulè, M. P., Martins, A. J., & Tsang, J. S. (2022) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29356-8 · Cited by 197 · see citing works
Mantri, M., Scuderi, G. J., Abedini-Nassab, R., Wang, M. F. Z., McKellar, D., Shi, H., Grodner, B., Butcher, J. T., & De Vlaminck, I. (2021) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-021-21892-z · Cited by 218 · see citing works
Balzer, M. S., Doke, T., Yang, Y., Aldridge, D. L., Hu, H., Mai, H., Mukhi, D., Ma, Z., Shrestha, R., Palmer, M. B., et al. (2022) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31772-9 · Cited by 204 · see citing works
Multimodal cell atlas of the ageing human skeletal muscle
Lai, Y., Ramírez‐Pardo, I., Isern, J., An, J., Perdiguero, E., Serrano, A. L., Li, J., García-Domínguez, E., Segalés, J., Guo, P.-C., et al. (2024) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07348-6 · Cited by 228 · see citing works
“Ambient RNA for snRNA-seq was reduced using SoupX (v.1.4.8) 62 with the default settings.”
InfluentialCerebrospinal fluid immune dysregulation during healthy brain aging and cognitive impairment
Piehl, N., van Olst, L., Ramakrishnan, A., Teregulova, V., Simonton, B., Zhang, Z., Tapp, E., Channappa, D., Oh, H. S., Losada, P. M., et al. (2022) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2022.11.019 · Cited by 195 · see citing works
A single-cell atlas of the aging mouse ovary
Isola, J. V. V., Ocañas, S. R., Hubbart, C. R., Ko, S.-H., Mondal, S. A., Hense, J. D., Carter, H. N. C., Schneider, A., Kovats, S., Alberola‐Ila, J., et al. (2024) · Nature Aging · doi:10.1038/s43587-023-00552-5 · Cited by 200 · see citing works
“The resultant out files were loaded into R Studio (v.4.2.2) using the ‘load10X’ function of the SoupX package 108 .”
InfluentialAn integrated single-cell reference atlas of the human endometrium
Marečková, M., García‐Alonso, L., Moullet, M., Lorenzi, V., Petryszak, R., Sancho‐Serra, C., Oszlánczi, Á., Icoresi-Mazzeo, C., Wong, F. C. K., Kelava, I., et al. (2024) · Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/s41588-024-01873-w · Cited by 199 · see citing works
Guided construction of single cell reference for human and mouse lung
Guo, M., Morley, M. P., Jiang, C., Wu, Y., Li, G., Du, Y., Zhao, S., Wagner, A. F., Cakar, A. C., Kouril, M., et al. (2023) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-023-40173-5 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
Bhattacherjee, A., Djekidel, M. N., Chen, R., Chen, W., Tuesta, L. M., & Zhang, Y. (2019) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12054-3 · Cited by 174 · see citing works
Carraro, G., Langerman, J., Sabri, S., Lorenzana, Z., Purkayastha, A., Zhang, G., Konda, B. M., Aros, C. J., Calvert, B. A., Szymaniak, A., et al. (2021) · Nature Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41591-021-01332-7 · Cited by 174 · see citing works
Single-cell atlases: shared and tissue-specific cell types across human organs
Elmentaite, R., Conde, C. D., Yang, L., & Teichmann, S. A. (2022) · Nature Reviews Genetics · doi:10.1038/s41576-022-00449-w · Cited by 171 · see citing works
Cellular transcriptomics reveals evolutionary identities of songbird vocal circuits
Colquitt, B. M., Merullo, D. P., Konopka, G., Roberts, T. F., & Brainard, M. S. (2021) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.abd9704 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
Fleming, S. J., Chaffin, M. D., Arduini, A., Akkad, A.-D., Banks, E., Marioni, J. C., Philippakis, A. A., Ellinor, P. T., & Babadi, M. (2019) · doi:10.1101/791699 · Cited by 164 · see citing works
Trump, S., Lukassen, S., Anker, M. S., Chua, R. L., Liebig, J., Thürmann, L., Corman, V. M., Binder, M., Loske, J., Klasa, C., et al. (2020) · Nature Biotechnology · doi:10.1038/s41587-020-00796-1 · Cited by 166 · see citing works
Human Microglia Show Unique Transcriptional Changes in Alzheimer's Disease
Prater, K. E., Green, K. J., Mamde, S., Sun, W., Cochoit, A., Smith, C. L., Chiou, K. L., Heath, L., Rose, S. E., Wiley, J., et al. (2023) · Nature Aging · doi:10.1038/s43587-023-00424-y · Cited by 164 · see citing works
Tumor to normal single-cell mRNA comparisons reveal a pan-neuroblastoma cancer cell
Kildisiute, G., Kholosy, W. M., Young, M. D., Roberts, K., Elmentaite, R., van Hooff, S. R., Pacyna, C. N., Khabirova, E., Piapi, A., Thevanesan, C., et al. (2021) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.abd3311 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
“To test whether this list of differentially expressed genes related to sympathoblastic cells, we identified all markers of sympathoblastic genes with a tf-idf cutoff of 1 (29).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationSayed, F. A., Kodama, L., Fan, L., Carling, G. K., Udeochu, J. C., Le, D., Li, Q., Zhou, L., Wong, M. Y., Horowitz, R., et al. (2021) · Science Translational Medicine · doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.abe3947 · Cited by 155 · see citing works
A single-cell atlas of mouse lung development
Negretti, N. M., Plosa, E. J., Benjamin, J. T., Schuler, B. A., Habermann, A. C., Jetter, C. S., Gulleman, P. M., Bunn, C., Hackett, A. N., Ransom, M. A., et al. (2021) · Development · doi:10.1242/dev.199512 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Carpenter, E. S., Elhossiny, A. M., Kadiyala, P., Li, J., McGue, J. J., Griffith, B. D., Zhang, Y., Edwards, J., Nelson, S., Lima, F., et al. (2023) · Cancer Discovery · doi:10.1158/2159-8290.cd-23-0013 · Cited by 152 · see citing works
Chemello, F., Wang, Z., Li, H. Z., McAnally, J., Liu, N., Bassel‐Duby, R., & Olson, E. N. (2020) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2018391117 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
“M. D. Young, S. Behjati, SoupX removes ambient RNA contamination from droplet based single-cell RNA sequencing data. bioRxiv:10.1101/303727 (3 February 2020).”
MethodInfluentialLasry, A., Nadorp, B., Fornerod, M. W. J., Nicolet, D., Wu, H., Walker, C. J., Sun, Z., Witkowski, M. T., Tikhonova, A. N., Guillamot, M., et al. (2022) · Nature Cancer · doi:10.1038/s43018-022-00480-0 · Cited by 154 · see citing works
Cell-Type-Specific Immune Dysregulation in Severely Ill COVID-19 Patients
Yao, C., Bora, S. A., Parimon, T., Zaman, T., Friedman, O., Palatinus, J. A., Surapaneni, N. S., Matusov, Y. P., Chiang, G. C., Kassar, A. G., et al. (2020) · Cell Reports · doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108590 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Schuler, B. A., Habermann, A. C., Plosa, E. J., Taylor, C. J., Jetter, C. S., Kapp, M., Benjamin, J. T., Gulleman, P., Nichols, D. S., Braunstein, L. Z., et al. (2020) · Journal of Clinical Investigation · doi:10.1172/jci140766 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
Resolving the immune landscape of human prostate at a single-cell level in health and cancer
Tuong, Z. K., Loudon, K. W., Berry, B., Richoz, N., Jones, J. L., Tan, X., Nguyen, Q. H., George, A., Hori, S., Field, S., et al. (2021) · Cell Reports · doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2021.110132 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
Reverse-translational identification of a cerebellar satiation network
Low, A. Y. T., Goldstein, N., Gaunt, J. R., Huang, K.-P., Zainolabidin, N., Yip, A. K. K., Carty, J. R. E., Choi, J. Y., Miller, A. M., Ho, H. S. T., et al. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04143-5 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
TREM2 macrophages induced by human lipids drive inflammation in acne lesions
Do, T. H., Ma, F., Andrade, P. R., Teles, R., de Andrade Silva, B. J., Hu, C., Espinoza, A., Hsu, J.-E., Cho, C.-S., Kim, M., et al. (2022) · Science Immunology · doi:10.1126/sciimmunol.abo2787 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
“M. D. Young, S. Behjati, SoupX removes ambient RNA contamination from droplet-based single-cell RNA sequencing data.”
MethodMultimodal decoding of human liver regeneration
Matchett, K. P., Wilson-Kanamori, J. R., Portman, J. R., Kapourani, C. A., Fercoq, F., May, S., Zajdel, E., Beltran, M., Sutherland, E. F., Mackey, J. B. G., et al. (2024) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07376-2 · Cited by 140 · see citing works
Aldehyde-driven transcriptional stress triggers an anorexic DNA damage response
Mulderrig, L., Garaycoechea, J. I., Tuong, Z. K., Millington, C. L., Dingler, F. A., Ferdinand, J. R., Gaul, L., Tadross, J. A., Arends, M. J., O’Rahilly, S., et al. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04133-7 · Cited by 136 · see citing works
Human SARS-CoV-2 challenge uncovers local and systemic response dynamics
Lindeboom, R. G. H., Worlock, K. B., Dratva, L. M., Yoshida, M., Scobie, D., Wagstaffe, H. R., Richardson, L., Wilbrey-Clark, A., Barnes, J. L., Kretschmer, L., et al. (2024) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07575-x · Cited by 143 · see citing works
Complement factor C1q mediates sleep spindle loss and epileptic spikes after mild brain injury
Holden, S. S., Grandi, F. C., Aboubakr, O., Higashikubo, B., Cho, F. S., Chang, A. H., Forero, A. O., Morningstar, A. R., Mathur, V., Kuhn, L. J., et al. (2021) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.abj2685 · Cited by 133 · see citing works
“After correcting for ambient RNA (33) and removing potential doublets (34) or nuclei with a high percentage of mitochondrial reads, clustering analysis identified the expected cell types, including microglia (Cx3cr1, P2ry12), astrocytes (Cldn10, Fgfr3), oligodendrocytes (Mobp, Olig1), oligodendrocyte progenitors (Sox8…”
BackgroundInfluentialSingle-cell transcriptome reveals insights into the development and function of the zebrafish ovary
Liu, Y., Kossack, M. E., McFaul, M. E., Christensen, L. N., Siebert, S., Wyatt, S. R., Kamei, C. N., Horst, S. G., Arroyo, N., Drummond, I. A. S., et al. (2022) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.76014 · Cited by 127 · see citing works
Caglayan, E., Liu, Y., & Konopka, G. (2022) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2022.09.010 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
Microglial mechanisms drive amyloid-β clearance in immunized patients with Alzheimer’s disease
van Olst, L., Simonton, B., Edwards, A. J., Forsyth, A. V., Boles, J. S., Jamshidi, P., Watson, T. H., Shepard, N., Krainc, T., Argue, B. M., et al. (2025) · Nature Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41591-025-03574-1 · Cited by 146 · see citing works
Anaplastic transformation in thyroid cancer revealed by single-cell transcriptomics
Lu, L., Wang, J. R., Henderson, Y. C., Bai, S., Yang, J., Hu, M., Shiau, C.-K., Pan, T., Yan, Y., Tran, T. M., et al. (2023) · Journal of Clinical Investigation · doi:10.1172/jci169653 · Cited by 136 · see citing works
“To determine whether the detection of collagen genes in mATC cells was due to floating RNAs from low-quality cells, we subjected all data to ambient RNA analysis using SoupX (27), which identified 2 samples that were affected (Supplemental Figure 4G).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSingle-cell transcriptomics for the assessment of cardiac disease
Miranda, A. M. A., Janbandhu, V., Maatz, H., Kanemaru, K., Cranley, J., Teichmann, S. A., Hübner, N., Schneider, M. D., Harvey, R. P., & Noseda, M. (2023) · Nature Reviews Cardiology · doi:10.1038/s41569-022-00805-7 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Sfrp1 inhibits lung fibroblast invasion during transition to injury-induced myofibroblasts
Mayr, C. H., Sengupta, A., Asgharpour, S., Ansari, M., Pestoni, J. C., Ogar, P., Angelidis, I., Liontos, A., Rodríguez‐Castillo, J. A., Lang, N. J., et al. (2024) · European Respiratory Journal · doi:10.1183/13993003.01326-2023 · Cited by 124 · see citing works
Stress-sensitive neural circuits change the gut microbiome via duodenal glands
Chang, H., Perkins, M. H., Novaes, L. S., Qian, F., Zhang, T., Neckel, P. H., Scherer, S., Ley, R. E., Han, W., & de Araújo, I. E. (2024) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2024.07.019 · Cited by 133 · see citing works
Spatial transcriptomics of healthy and fibrotic human liver at single-cell resolution
Watson, B. R., Paul, B., Rahman, R. U., Amir-Zilberstein, L., Segerstolpe, Å., Epstein, E. T., Murphy, S., Geistlinger, L., Lee, T., Shih, A., et al. (2025) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-024-55325-4 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
Amnion signals are essential for mesoderm formation in primates
Yang, R., Goedel, A., Kang, Y., Si, C., Chu, C., Zheng, Y., Chen, Z., Gruber, P. J., Xiao, Y., Zhou, C., et al. (2021) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-021-25186-2 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
Single-Cell Profiling of Ebola Virus Disease In Vivo Reveals Viral and Host Dynamics
Kotliar, D., Lin, A. E., Logue, J., Hughes, T. K., Khoury, N. M., Raju, S. S., Wadsworth, M. H., Chen, H. M., Kurtz, J. R., Dighero-Kemp, B., et al. (2020) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2020.10.002 · Cited by 120 · see citing works
Morgan, D. M., Ruiter, B., Smith, N. P., Tu, A. A., Monian, B., Stone, B. E., Hundal, N. V., Yuan, Q., Shreffler, W. G., & Love, J. C. (2021) · Science Immunology · doi:10.1126/sciimmunol.abi5586 · Cited by 120 · see citing works
“M. D. Young, S. Behjati, SoupX removes ambient RNA contamination from droplet based single cell RNA sequencing data. bioRxiv 303727 [Preprint].”
InfluentialMuto, Y., Dixon, E. E., Yoshimura, Y., Wu, H., Omachi, K., Ledru, N., Wilson, P. C., King, A. J., Olson, N. E., Gunawan, M. G., et al. (2022) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-022-34255-z · Cited by 115 · see citing works
Single‐cell analyses reveal SARS‐CoV‐2 interference with intrinsic immune response in the human gut
Triana, S., Metz‐Zumaran, C., Ramírez, C. D., Kee, C., Doldan, P., Shahraz, M., Schraivogel, D., Gschwind, A. R., Sharma, A. K., Steinmetz, L. M., et al. (2021) · Molecular Systems Biology · doi:10.15252/msb.202110232 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Single cell profiling of primary and paired metastatic lymph node tumors in breast cancer patients
Liu, T., Liu, C., Yan, M., Zhang, L., Zhang, J., Xiao, M., Li, Z., Wei, X., & Zhang, H. (2022) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-022-34581-2 · Cited by 121 · see citing works
Schaub, J. A., Alakwaa, F., McCown, P. J., Naik, A. S., Nair, V., Eddy, S. F., Menon, R., Otto, E. A., Demeke, D., Hartman, J., et al. (2023) · Journal of Clinical Investigation · doi:10.1172/jci164486 · Cited by 120 · see citing works
“Young MD, Behjati S. SoupX removes ambient RNA contamination from droplet-based single-cell RNA sequencing data.”
InfluentialSingle-nucleus transcriptomic landscape of primate hippocampal aging
Zhang, H., Li, J., Ren, J., Sun, S., Ma, S., Zhang, W., Yu, Y., Cai, Y., Yan, K., Li, W., et al. (2021) · Protein & Cell · doi:10.1007/s13238-021-00852-9 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
“SoupX (version 1.4.8) was applied to every sample to remove ambient RNA bias (Young and Behjati, 2020).”
MethodInfluential
- Authors
- Young, M. D., & Behjati, S.
- Affiliations
- Wellcome Sanger Institute (GB)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Young, Matthew D
- Venue
- GigaScience
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2020-12
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 12
- ISSN
- 2047-217X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7763177
- OpenAlex
- W3114078084
- Semantic Scholar
- e2af27bc9dc56dffc8b7cdf12c4bf22787407d0e
- Cited by
- 1,619
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 358 · 2025: 388 · 2024: 347 · 2023: 211 · 2022: 149 · 2021: 86 · 2020: 54 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 35.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- GigaScience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gene expression and cancer classification
- Keywords
- cell-free RNA, background correction, single-cell transcriptomics, quality control, contamination quantification
- MeSH terms
- Base Sequence, RNA, Sequence Analysis, RNA, Gene Expression Profiling, Single-Cell Analysis, Transcriptome
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