Ranking genes by a conservation score which includes enhancers

Question

[angus.j.g.campbell]

Hi all,

Is there a method or package (R or python) which can compute a conservation score which includes enhancers (proximal and or distal) between mouse and human genes? I am training a model on single cell rnaseq data using mouse gene expression data to run it on human gene expression to detect a rare cell type. I am considering filtering genes out by their conservations score. What would be a good exclusion criteria using conservation?

[ATpoint]

Rather than doing this why not deriving a gene signature from these rare cells and scoring your human samples with it, for example using UCell. Then see whether it credibly exists, and validate using FACS.

[angus.j.g.campbell]

Our lab only uses publicly available data we don't do experiments ourselves so FACS is out of the question. Also the training data was collected with FACS. Calling it a cell type is not entirely accurate its a transient cell state that we know is in human cells as well, but its a question of if the genes involved are the same.

[angus.j.g.campbell]

Thanks for the suggestion about UCell I will try this out.