<p>The black dots represent the values for individual cells. The "nGene" plot (the first one) shows the number of detected genes for every cell.</p>

<p>The red shape shows the distribution of the data. For the "nGene" plot, you can see that the average number of genes per cell is about 900 and most of the cells have roughly around 700-1100 genes.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-25T21:14:30.330Z
is it normal that you can only see the dot but not the red shape after you doing the Vlnplot? My data shows that problem after I doing the gene in cluster, so I was confuse whether it is a problem or not?
hua
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-09-09T23:42:23.857Z
If you see just a dot, it probably means you have one outlier. If you look closely, you will probably notice the rest of the dots at 0 (so they look like a line).
burger
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-09T21:44:50.270Z
2018-08-09T21:44:50.270Z
burger
<p>The plot includes the data points that were used to generate it, with jitter on the x axis so that you can see them better. In red you see the actual violin plot, a vertical (symmetrical) plot of the distribution/density of the black data points.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-10T11:46:17.740Z
2018-08-10T11:46:17.740Z
galicae
<p>I'm confused about the meaning of the black dots and the red shape in the violin plots from the <a href="https://satijalab.org/seurat/pbmc3k_tutorial.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">seurat tutorial</a>:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/OVpiU.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/OVpiU.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<scrnaseq>
Interpretation of the violin plots from sc-RNA-seq
# Interpretation of the violin plots from sc-RNA-seq

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-08-08)

I'm confused about the meaning of the black dots and the red shape in the violin plots from the [seurat tutorial](https://satijalab.org/seurat/pbmc3k_tutorial.html):

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/OVpiU.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/OVpiU.png)

**Tags:** scrnaseq

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-08-09. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

The black dots represent the values for individual cells. The "nGene" plot (the first one) shows the number of detected genes for every cell.

The red shape shows the distribution of the data. For the "nGene" plot, you can see that the average number of genes per cell is about 900 and most of the cells have roughly around 700-1100 genes.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: is it normal that you can only see the dot but not the red shape after you doing the Vlnplot? My data shows that problem after I doing the gene in cluster, so I was confuse whether it is a problem or not?  
> **username_1**: If you see just a dot, it probably means you have one outlier. If you look closely, you will probably notice the rest of the dots at 0 (so they look like a line).  

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### Answer by username_2 on 2018-08-10. Score: 1

The plot includes the data points that were used to generate it, with jitter on the x axis so that you can see them better. In red you see the actual violin plot, a vertical (symmetrical) plot of the distribution/density of the black data points.


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