Single-cell variant calling — detecting mutations at cellular resolution

Single-cell variant calling is a bioinformatics pipeline that identifies DNA sequence variants — single-nucleotide variants (SNVs), small insertions and deletions, and copy-number alterations — within individual cells rather than across a bulk tissue mixture. By resolving the mutational landscape cell by cell, it reveals intra-tumoral heterogeneity, clonal architecture, and somatic mutation patterns that bulk sequencing obscures. The approach is central to cancer genomics, developmental biology, and any study where cell-to-cell genetic diversity is the primary question.