Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Reply: Uncertainties in tumor allele frequencies limit power to infer evolutionary pressures

Nature Genetics volume 49, pages 1289–1291 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Williams et al. reply:

Noorbakhsh and Chuang1 question the resolvability of evolutionary dynamics from cancer sequencing data. In Williams et al.2, we showed that the cumulative distribution of subclonal mutations at variant allele frequency f expected in a neutrally evolving cancer is

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Noorbakhsh, J. & Chuang, J.H. Nat. Genet. 49, 1288–1289 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Williams, M.J., Werner, B., Barnes, C.P., Graham, T.A. & Sottoriva, A. Nat. Genet. 48, 238–244 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Donnelly, P. & Tavaré, S. Annu. Rev. Genet. 29, 401–421 (1995).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Gillespie, J.H. Genetics 155, 909–919 (2000).

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Kimura, M. The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution (Cambridge University Press, 1984).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Wu, C.-I., Wang, H.-Y., Ling, S. & Lu, X. Annu. Rev. Genet. 50, 347–369 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Greaves, M. & Maley, C.C. Nature 481, 306–313 (2012).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Tomasetti, C., Marchionni, L., Nowak, M.A., Parmigiani, G. & Vogelstein, B. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 112, 118–123 (2015).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang, K. et al. Nat. Genet. 46, 573–582 (2014).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

A.S. is supported by the Chris Rokos Fellowship in Evolution and Cancer. B.W. is supported by the Geoffrey W. Lewis Post-Doctoral Training Fellowship. This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (105104/Z/14/Z). C.P.B. acknowledges funding from the Wellcome Trust through a Research Career Developmental Fellowship (097319/Z/11/Z). This work was supported by a Cancer Research UK Career Developmental Award to T.A.G. M.J.W. is supported by a UK Medical Research Council student fellowship.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Evolution and Cancer Laboratory, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Marry University of London, London, UK

    Marc J Williams & Trevor A Graham

  2. Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, London, UK

    Marc J Williams & Chris P Barnes

  3. Centre for Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology (CoMPLEX), University College London, London, UK

    Marc J Williams

  4. Centre for Evolution and Cancer, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK

    Benjamin Werner & Andrea Sottoriva

  5. Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK

    Chris P Barnes

Authors
  1. Marc J Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Benjamin Werner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Chris P Barnes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Trevor A Graham
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Andrea Sottoriva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Trevor A Graham or Andrea Sottoriva.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Williams, M., Werner, B., Barnes, C. et al. Reply: Uncertainties in tumor allele frequencies limit power to infer evolutionary pressures. Nat Genet 49, 1289–1291 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3877

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3877

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer