Isogenic cells in culture show strong variability, which arises from dynamic adaptations to the microenvironment of individual cells. Here we study the influence of the cell population context, which ...determines a single cell's microenvironment, in image‐based RNAi screens. We developed a comprehensive computational approach that employs Bayesian and multivariate methods at the single‐cell level. We applied these methods to 45 RNA interference screens of various sizes, including 7 druggable genome and 2 genome‐wide screens, analysing 17 different mammalian virus infections and four related cell physiological processes. Analysing cell‐based screens at this depth reveals widespread RNAi‐induced changes in the population context of individual cells leading to indirect RNAi effects, as well as perturbations of cell‐to‐cell variability regulators. We find that accounting for indirect effects improves the consistency between siRNAs targeted against the same gene, and between replicate RNAi screens performed in different cell lines, in different labs, and with different siRNA libraries. In an era where large‐scale RNAi screens are increasingly performed to reach a systems‐level understanding of cellular processes, we show that this is often improved by analyses that account for and incorporate the single‐cell microenvironment.
A large set of high‐content RNAi screens investigating mammalian virus infection and multiple cellular activities is analysed to reveal the impact of population context on phenotypic variability and to identify indirect RNAi effects.
Synopsis
A large set of high‐content RNAi screens investigating mammalian virus infection and multiple cellular activities is analysed to reveal the impact of population context on phenotypic variability and to identify indirect RNAi effects.
Cell population context determines phenotypes in RNAi screens of multiple cellular activities (including virus infection, cell size regulation, endocytosis, and lipid homeostasis), which can be accounted for by a combination of novel image analysis and multivariate statistical methods.
Accounting for cell population context‐mediated effects strongly changes the reproducibility and consistency of RNAi screens across cell lines as well as of siRNAs targeting the same gene.
Such analyses can identify the perturbed regulation of population context dependent cell‐to‐cell variability, a novel perturbation phenotype.
Overall, these methods advance the use of large‐scale RNAi screening for a systems‐level understanding of cellular processes.
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