Methods using randomer-containing synthetic molecules

1. A method of correcting for amplification bias in a PCR reaction of a sample, the method comprising:

A) amplifying by multiplex PCR, sequencing, and quantifying output reads:

(i) biological template molecules comprising rearranged CDR3 oligonucleotide sequences from T cell receptor (TCR) loci from T cells or immunoglobulin (Ig) loci from B cells, each sequence comprising a TCR or IG V segment and a TCR or IG J segment, to obtain a total number of output biological sequence reads; and

(ii) synthetic template molecules each comprising one TCR or Ig V segment and one TCR or IG J segment, universal forward and/or reverse priming adaptor sequences, one or more barcodes that identify the template molecules as synthetic, an internal marker oligonucleotide sequence, and a random oligonucleotide sequence, wherein each random oligonucleotide sequence comprises a unique nucleotide sequence, and wherein each synthetic template molecule comprises a unique combination of a V segment and a J segment, to obtain a total number of output synthetic sequence reads;

B) clustering sequence reads by:

(i) extracting said sequence reads;

(ii) identifying whether a sequence read is a biological sequence read or a synthetic sequence read by:

(a) comparing the sequence reads against the known synthetic template sequences using a first metric in order to identify synthetic template sequences, while ignoring the portion of the sequence read expected to correspond to the random oligonucleotide sequence in synthetic sequences;

(b) comparing the remaining unmatched sequence reads against the known synthetic template sequences using a second metric, while ignoring the portion of the sequence read expected to correspond to the random oligonucleotide sequence in synthetic sequences;

(iii) clustering the synthetic sequence reads by collapsing sequence reads that match the same expected synthetic oligonucleotide sequence and share the same random oligonucleotide sequence;

(iv) assigning to each cluster of synthetic sequence reads, based on the expected synthetic oligonucleotide sequence to which they were matched, a consensus sequence comprising the expected sequence of the synthetic oligonucleotide sequence to which they were matched, including a V segment and a J segment; and

(v) determining a total number of observed synthetic sequence reads in each cluster;

C) calculating one or more normalization factors for the V segments and J segments in the synthetic sequence reads by:

(i) calculating a mean read count among all sequence clusters matched to each synthetic oligonucleotide sequence;

(ii) calculating an overall mean of the mean read counts for each unique V and J segment, among the synthetic oligonucleotide sequences containing a given V and any J or vice versa;

(iii) calculating a mean amplification bias by dividing the mean read count for each V segment and J segment calculated in step C (ii) by the overall mean V segment mean read counts or J segment mean read counts calculated in step C (ii) to arrive at an amplification factor for each V and J segment; and

(iv) producing the normalization factor for a given V or J segment by calculating the reciprocal of the mean amplification bias produced in step C (iii); and

D) multiplying the observed sequence read count of each given unique biological sequence by the normalization factor calculated in step C (iv) corresponding to the V segment present in that unique biological sequence and by the normalization factor calculated in step C (iv) corresponding to the J segment present in that unique biological sequence, thereby correcting for amplification bias in the multiplex PCR reaction of the sample.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of comparing the sequence reads against the known synthetic template sequences is performed with a Hamming metric.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of comparing the remaining unmatched sequence reads against the known synthetic template sequences is performed with a Levenshtein metric.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sample is obtained from a mammalian subject.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sample comprises a mixture of T cells and/or B cells, and cells that are not T cells or B cells.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said sample comprises human cells, mouse cells, or rat cells.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said sample comprises somatic tissue.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sample is a tumor biopsy.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said sample is fresh tissue, frozen tissue, or fixed tissue.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the synthetic template molecules comprise the sequence of formula I:

5′-U1-B1-V-I-B2-N-J-B3-U2-3′, wherein

(i) V is an oligonucleotide sequence comprising at least 20 and not more than 1000 contiguous nucleotides of a TCR or Ig variable (V) region encoding gene sequence, or the complement thereof, and each synthetic template comprises a unique V-region oligonucleotide sequence;

(ii) J is an oligonucleotide sequence comprising at least 15 and not more than 600 contiguous nucleotides of a TCR or Ig joining (J) region encoding gene sequence, or the complement thereof, and each synthetic template comprises a unique V-region oligonucleotide sequence;

(iii) U1 comprises an oligonucleotide sequence that is selected from: (a) a first universal adaptor oligonucleotide sequence, and (b) a first sequencing platform oligonucleotide sequence that is linked to and positioned 5′ to a first universal adaptor oligonucleotide sequence;

(iv) U2 comprises an oligonucleotide sequence that is selected from: (a) a second universal adaptor oligonucleotide sequence, and (b) a second sequencing platform oligonucleotide sequence that is linked to and positioned 3′ to a second universal adaptor oligonucleotide sequence;

(v) I is an internal marker oligonucleotide sequence comprising at least 2 and not more than 100 nucleotides;

(vi) N is a random oligonucleotide sequence comprising at least 2 and not more than 100 nucleotides; and

(vii) B1, B2, and B3 each independently comprise either nothing or oligonucleotide barcode sequences of at least 2 and not more than 100 nucleotides that uniquely identify, as a pair combination, (a) said unique V region oligonucleotide sequences; and (b) said unique J region oligonucleotide sequences, wherein at least one of B1, B2, and B3 are present in each synthetic template.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein N comprises at least 4 and not more than 15 nucleotides or wherein N comprises 8 nucleotides.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the amplification by multiplex PCR in step A is performed using a plurality of oligonucleotide primer sets comprising:

(a) a plurality of V segment oligonucleotide primers that are each independently capable of specifically hybridizing to at least one polynucleotide encoding a TCR or Ig V region polypeptide or to the complement thereof, wherein each V segment primer comprises a nucleotide sequence of at least 15 contiguous nucleotides that is complementary to at least one functional a TCR or Ig V region encoding gene segment and wherein said plurality of V segment primers specifically hybridize to substantially all functional TCR or Ig V region encoding gene segments that are present in the composition, and

(b) a plurality of J segment oligonucleotide primers that are each independently capable of specifically hybridizing to at least one polynucleotide encoding an TCR or Ig J region polypeptide or to the complement thereof, wherein each J segment primer comprises a nucleotide sequence of at least 15 contiguous nucleotides that is complementary to at least one functional TCR or Ig J region encoding gene segment and wherein said plurality of J segment primers specifically hybridize to substantially all functional TCR or Ig J region encoding gene segments that are present in the composition.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein said plurality of V segment oligonucleotide primers and said plurality of J-segment oligonucleotide primers comprise the sequences set forth in SEQ ID NOs:1-764.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein either or both of:

(i) said plurality of V segment oligonucleotide primers comprise sequences having at least 90% sequence identity to nucleotide sequences set forth in SEQ ID NOs:1-120, 147-158, 167-276, 407-578, and 593-740, and

(ii) said plurality of J segment oligonucleotide primers comprise sequences having at least 90% sequence identity to nucleotide sequences set forth in SEQ ID NOs:121-146, 159-166, 277-406, 579-592, and 741-764.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein said TCR V segment comprises a TCR Vδ segment, a TCR Vγ segment, a TCR Vα segment, or a TCR Vβ segment.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein said TCR J segment comprises a TCR Jδ segment, a TCR Jγ segment, a TCR Jα segment, or a TCR Jβ segment.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein said Ig V segment comprises an IGH V gene segment, an IGL V gene segment, or an IGK V gene segment.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein said Ig J region segment comprises an IGH J gene segment, an IGL J gene segment, or an IGK V gene segment.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein said output sequence reads obtained in steps A (i) and A (ii) are each about 100-300 nucleotides in length.

20. A method of correcting for amplification bias in a PCR reaction of a sample, the method comprising:

A) amplifying by multiplex PCR to produce amplicons of:

(i) biological template molecules comprising rearranged CDR3 oligonucleotide sequences from T cell receptor (TCR) loci from T cells or immunoglobulin (Ig) loci from B cells, each sequence comprising a TCR or IG V segment and a TCR or IG J segment; and

(ii) synthetic template molecules each comprising one TCR or Ig V segment and one TCR or IG J segment, universal forward and/or reverse priming adaptor sequences, one or more barcodes that identify the template molecules as synthetic, an internal marker oligonucleotide sequence, and a random oligonucleotide sequence, wherein each random oligonucleotide sequence comprises a unique nucleotide sequence, and wherein each synthetic template molecule comprises a unique combination of a V segment and a J segment;

B) sequencing said amplicons to obtain a total number of output biological sequence reads and a total number of output synthetic template sequence reads;

C) identifying whether a sequence read is an output biological sequence read or an output synthetic template sequence read;

D) clustering the synthetic template sequence reads by collapsing sequence reads that match the same expected synthetic oligonucleotide sequence and share the same random oligonucleotide sequence;

E) determining the total number of observed synthetic template sequence reads having the same V and J segments in each cluster;

F) calculating one or more normalization factors for each of the V segments and J segments in the unique synthetic template sequences; and

G) multiplying the observed sequence read count of each unique biological sequence by the normalization factor calculated in step F corresponding to the V segment present in that unique biological sequence and by the normalization factor calculated in step F corresponding to the J segment present in that unique biological sequence, thereby correcting for amplification bias in the multiplex PCR reaction of the sample.