Basic Clonal Visualizations

clonalQuant

The first function to explore the clones is clonalQuant() to return the total or relative numbers of unique clones.

scale

TRUE - relative percent of unique clones scaled by the total size of the clonal repertoire.
FALSE - Report the total number of unique clones (default).

chain

“both” for combined chain visualization
“TRA”, “TRB”, “TRD”, “TRG”, “IGH” or “IGL” to select single chain

clonalQuant(combined.TCR, 
            cloneCall="strict", 
            chain = "both", 
            scale = TRUE)

Another option here is to be able to define the visualization by data classes. Here, we used the combineTCR() list to define the Type variable as part of the naming structure. We can use the group.by to specifically use a column in the data set to organize the visualization.

clonalQuant(combined.TCR, cloneCall = "gene", group.by = "Type", scale = TRUE)

clonalAbundance

We can also examine the relative distribution of clones by abundance. Here clonalAbundance() will produce a line graph with a total number of clones by the number of instances within the sample or run. Like above, we can also group.by this by vectors within the contig object using the group.by variable in the function.

clonalAbundance(combined.TCR, 
                cloneCall = "gene", 
                scale = FALSE)

clonalAbundance() output can also be converted into a density plot, which may allow for better comparisons between different repertoire sizes, by setting scale = TRUE.

clonalAbundance(combined.TCR, cloneCall = "gene", scale = TRUE)

clonalLength

We can look at the length distribution of the CDR3 sequences by calling the lengtheContig() function. Importantly, unlike the other basic visualizations, the cloneCall can only be “nt” or “aa”. Due to the method of calling clones as outlined above, the length should reveal a multimodal curve, this is a product of using the NA for the unreturned chain sequence and multiple chains within a single barcode.

chain

“both” for combined chain visualization
“TRA”, “TRB”, “TRD”, “TRG”, “IGH” or “IGL” to select single chain

clonalLength(combined.TCR, 
             cloneCall="aa", 
             chain = "both")

clonalLength(combined.TCR, 
             cloneCall="aa", 
             chain = "TRA", 
             scale = TRUE)

clonalCompare

We can also look at clones between samples and changes in dynamics by using the clonalCompare() function.

samples

Can be used to isolate specific samples based on the name of the list element

graph

“alluvial” - graph imaged below
“area” - graph by area of the respective clone

top.clones

The top number of clones to graph, this will be calculated based on the frequency of the individual sample. This can also be left blank.

clones

Can be used to isolate specific clone sequences, ensure the call matches the sequences you would like to visualize.

highlight.clones

Specifically color certain clones, other clones will be greyed out.

relabel.clones

Simplify the isolated clones to numerical designations to allow for a tidier visualization

clonalCompare(combined.TCR, 
                  top.clones = 10, 
                  samples = c("P17B", "P17L"), 
                  cloneCall="aa", 
                  graph = "alluvial")

We can also choose to highlight specific clones, such as in the case of “CVVSDNTGGFKTIF_CASSVRRERANTGELFF” and “NA_CASSVRRERANTGELFF” using the highlight.clones parameter. In addition, we can simplify the plot to label the clones as clones 1:19.

clonalCompare(combined.TCR, 
              top.clones = 10,
              highlight.clones = c("CVVSDNTGGFKTIF_CASSVRRERANTGELFF", "NA_CASSVRRERANTGELFF"),
              relabel.clones = TRUE,
              samples = c("P17B", "P17L"), 
              cloneCall="aa", 
              graph = "alluvial")

Alternatively, if we only want to show specific clones, we can use the clones parameter.

clonalCompare(combined.TCR, clones = c("CVVSDNTGGFKTIF_CASSVRRERANTGELFF", "NA_CASSVRRERANTGELFF"),
    relabel.clones = TRUE, samples = c("P17B", "P17L"), cloneCall = "aa", graph = "alluvial")

clonalScatter

clonalScatter() will organize two repertoires, quantify the relative clone sizes, and produce a scatter plot comparing the two samples.

x.axis and y.axis

Names of the list element to place on the x-axis and y-axis - so for example “P18B” and “P18L”

dot.size

“total” to display the total number of clones between the x- and y-axis
Name of the list element to use for size calculation