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Gawain
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How to remedy an error from collapsing technical replicates with DESeq2?

Goal: To ensure "the sum of the counts for [my samples] is the same as the counts in the [samples] columns in ddsColl" after collapsing replicates using DESeq2.

Before performing the differential expression analysis on my RNA-seq data stored in a DESeqDataSet object, I need to collapse the read counts observed for each of my technical replicates. This should be simple enough using the DESeq2 manual and vignettes available.

Once you have a DESeqDataSet object (dds), this is what you must do to collapse replicates:

ddsColl <- collapseReplicates(dds, dds$sample, dds$run)
# examine the colData and column names of the collapsed data
colData(ddsColl)
colnames(ddsColl)
# check that the sum of the counts for "sample1" is the same
# as the counts in the "sample1" column in ddsColl
matchFirstLevel <- dds$sample == levels(dds$sample)[1]
stopifnot(all(rowSums(counts(dds[,matchFirstLevel])) == counts(ddsColl[,1])))

However, when I try this, I get the following error with no apparent resolution reported in the manual or on online forums:

Error: all(rowSums(counts(dds[, matchFirstLevel])) == counts(ddsColl[,  .... is not TRUE

How might I circumvent this error and continue on with the analysis?


Input files:

> head(cts)
            KO1_P1_L001.Counts KO1_P1_L002.Counts KO1_P2_L001.Counts KO1_P2_L002.Counts KO1_P3_L001.Counts KO1_P3_L002.Counts KO2_P1_L001.Counts KO2_P1_L002.Counts KO2_P2_L001.Counts KO2_P2_L002.Counts KO2_P3_L001.Counts KO2_P3_L002.Counts WT_P1_L001.Counts WT_P1_L002.Counts WT_P2_L001.Counts WT_P2_L002.Counts WT_P3_L001.Counts WT_P3_L002.Counts
DDX11L1                      1                  0                  1                  1                  2                  1                  0                  1                  2                  1                  3                  1                 7                 2                 1                 1                 0                 0
WASH7P                     124                144                128                151                102                118                 39                 41                103                 87                105                106               125               120                13                26               104               136
MIR6859-1                    8                  6                  4                  5                  4                  6                  2                  2                  7                  2                  7                  6                 6                 6                 2                 2                 2                 9
MIR1302-2HG                  1                  4                  0                  0                  0                  2                  2                  2                  2                  2                  0                  4                 1                 2                 0                 3                 2                 2
MIR1302-2                    0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                 0                 0                 0                 0                 0                 0
FAM138A                      0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                  0                 0                 0                 0                 0                 0                 0

> print(coldata)
                   cell_type condition sample           run
KO1_P1_L001.Counts     human    longKO     l1  long_P1_L001
KO1_P1_L002.Counts     human    longKO     l1  long_P1_L002
KO1_P2_L001.Counts     human    longKO     l2  long_P2_L001
KO1_P2_L002.Counts     human    longKO     l2  long_P2_L002
KO1_P3_L001.Counts     human    longKO     l3  long_P3_L001
KO1_P3_L002.Counts     human    longKO     l3  long_P3_L002
KO2_P1_L001.Counts     human   shortKO     s1 short_P1_L001
KO2_P1_L002.Counts     human   shortKO     s1 short_P1_L002
KO2_P2_L001.Counts     human   shortKO     s2 short_P2_L001
KO2_P2_L002.Counts     human   shortKO     s2 short_P2_L002
KO2_P3_L001.Counts     human   shortKO     s3 short_P3_L001
KO2_P3_L002.Counts     human   shortKO     s3 short_P3_L002
WT_P1_L001.Counts      human        WT     w1    wt_P1_L001
WT_P1_L002.Counts      human        WT     w1    wt_P1_L002
WT_P2_L001.Counts      human        WT     w2    wt_P2_L001
WT_P2_L002.Counts      human        WT     w2    wt_P2_L002
WT_P3_L001.Counts      human        WT     w3    wt_P3_L001
WT_P3_L002.Counts      human        WT     w3    wt_P3_L002

My workflow:

> cts <- read.table("counts.txt", header=T, sep="\t", row.names="Geneid")
> coldata <- read.csv(file="annotationFile.csv", sep=",", row.names=1)

> dds <- DESeqDataSetFromMatrix(countData = cts, colData = coldata, design = ~ condition)
> dds
> dds
class: DESeqDataSet 
dim: 59368 18 
metadata(1): version
assays(1): counts
rownames(59368): DDX11L1 WASH7P ... MT-TT MT-TP
rowData names(0):
colnames(18): KO1_P1_L001.Counts KO1_P1_L002.Counts ... WT_P3_L001.Counts WT_P3_L002.Counts
colData names(4): cell_type condition sample run

> ddsColl <- collapseReplicates(dds, dds$sample, dds$run)
> ddsColl
class: DESeqDataSet 
dim: 59368 9 
metadata(1): version
assays(1): counts
rownames(59368): DDX11L1 WASH7P ... MT-TT MT-TP
rowData names(0):
colnames(9): l1 l2 ... w2 w3
colData names(5): cell_type condition sample run runsCollapsed

> colData(ddsColl)
DataFrame with 9 rows and 5 columns
     cell_type condition      sample           run               runsCollapsed
   <character>  <factor> <character>   <character>                 <character>
l1       human   longKO           l1  long_P1_L001   long_P1_L001,long_P1_L002
l2       human   longKO           l2  long_P2_L001   long_P2_L001,long_P2_L002
l3       human   longKO           l3  long_P3_L001   long_P3_L001,long_P3_L002
s1       human   shortKO          s1 short_P1_L001 short_P1_L001,short_P1_L002
s2       human   shortKO          s2 short_P2_L001 short_P2_L001,short_P2_L002
s3       human   shortKO          s3 short_P3_L001 short_P3_L001,short_P3_L002
w1       human   WT               w1    wt_P1_L001       wt_P1_L001,wt_P1_L002
w2       human   WT               w2    wt_P2_L001       wt_P2_L001,wt_P2_L002
w3       human   WT               w3    wt_P3_L001       wt_P3_L001,wt_P3_L002

> colnames(ddsColl)
[1] "l1" "l2" "l3" "s1" "s2" "s3" "w1" "w2" "w3"

> matchFirstLevel <- dds$sample == levels(dds$sample)[1]
> stopifnot(all(rowSums(counts(dds[,matchFirstLevel])) == counts(ddsColl[,1])))
Error: all(rowSums(counts(dds[, matchFirstLevel])) == counts(ddsColl[,  .... is not TRUE

The DESeq2 example outputs look just like mine (see below), so I'm not sure why it is successful in calculating the same sum of counts for 'Sample1' in the counts and ddsColl object, but fails with my data. Any ideas why?

Example outputs:

> dds <- makeExampleDESeqDataSet(m=12)
> dds$sample <- factor(sample(paste0("sample",rep(1:9, c(2,1,1,2,1,1,2,1,1)))))
> dds$run <- paste0("run",1:12)
> ddsColl <- collapseReplicates(dds, dds$sample, dds$run)
> colData(ddsColl)
DataFrame with 9 rows and 4 columns
        condition   sample         run runsCollapsed
         <factor> <factor> <character>   <character>
sample1         B  sample1       run10   run10,run11
sample2         A  sample2        run5          run5
sample3         A  sample3        run6          run6
sample4         A  sample4        run1     run1,run4
sample5         B  sample5        run7          run7
sample6         B  sample6        run9          run9
sample7         A  sample7        run3    run3,run12
sample8         B  sample8        run8          run8
sample9         A  sample9        run2          run2
> colnames(ddsColl)
[1] "sample1" "sample2" "sample3" "sample4" "sample5" "sample6" "sample7" "sample8" "sample9"
> matchFirstLevel <- dds$sample == levels(dds$sample)[1]
> stopifnot(all(rowSums(counts(dds[,matchFirstLevel])) == counts(ddsColl[,1])))
Gawain
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