What isthe Indication of copy number?

Question

[andrew.samy.abdelmalak]

What does a copy number of 4.4 indicate? Why is it decimal not integer?

Thank you very much.

[lakhujanivijay]

It is always helpful if you provide some background information. What data is it? Where did you get this number from?

Answer 1

[Devon Ryan]

1. There's variability attached, so it could be 4.4 +/- 0.4 or something like that.
2. There's underlying cellular heterogeneity, so some cells have 4 copies, others 5.
3. There's a bit of bias in the sequencing, so the estimates a bit higher/lower than what is actually happening.

Those are the first 3 possibilities that popped into my mind.