Atlas maps sex differences across human cancer cells
The database combines data from 6,764 patient samples, covering 18 cancer types and more than 25.8 million single cells.
Limit: Low RNA or fragment counts can falsely label cells as missing the Y chromosome
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In a computational study of data from 6,764 patient samples, researchers built XYcellAtlas, a database mapping sex differences and Y chromosome loss across human cancers. The Y chromosome is one of the sex chromosomes. The data covered 18 cancer types, eight kinds of precancerous lesions and 21 tissue sources. They included more than 25.8 million single cells and one million tissue locations with measurements of gene activity.
Computer models trained on normal-tissue data estimated how often different cell types lacked the Y chromosome. The atlas cataloged differences in gene activity associated with sex or Y chromosome loss in cancer cells and cells around them. Users can explore these molecular patterns by cell type and location within tissues.
Why it matters
Cancer is an age-related disease in which risk, outcomes and treatment responses differ by sex. The authors present the atlas as a resource for investigating molecular features underlying how tumors change.
Caveats
Y chromosome loss frequencies were model-based estimates. The database catalogs molecular associations rather than establishing cause and effect.
From the paper
- Participants
… and LOY ratios (scRNA-seq) in paired WES, bulk RNA-seq, and scRNA-seq data from 15 patients with colorectal cancer (Supplementary Fig. S2A) [69].
Quoted word for word from the full text on academic.oup.com.
- Resources: datasets, atlases and tools
- Chromatin and 3D genome organization
- Epigenetic regulation of gene expression
- Cancer
- Precancerous lesion
- Humans
The paper
Central South University; Chinese Academy of Sciences
Nucleic Acids Research, Oct 30, 2026, Open access