copy number variations (cnVs) are genomic structural mutations consisting of abnormal numbers of fragment copies. next-generation sequencing of read-depth signals mirrors these variants. Some tools used to predict cnVs by depth have been published, but most of these tools can be applied to only a specific data type due to modeling limitations. We develop a tool for copy number variation detection by a Bayesian procedure, i.e., conY, that adopts a Bayesian hierarchical model and an efficient reversible-jump Markov chain Monte Carlo inference algorithm for whole genome sequencing of read-depth data. conY can be applied not only to individual samples for estimating the absolute number of copies but also to case-control pairs for detecting patient-specific variations. We evaluate the performance of CONY and compare CONY with competing approaches through simulations and by using experimental data from the 1000 Genomes Project. CONY outperforms the other methods in terms of accuracy in both single-sample and paired-samples analyses. in addition, conY performs well regardless of whether the data coverage is high or low. CONY is useful for detecting both absolute and relative CNVs from read-depth data sequences. The package is available at https://github.com/ weiyuchung/CONY. Copy number variations (CNVs) are genomic structural mutations consisting of abnormal numbers of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) section copies. CNVs were originally defined to range from one kilobasepair to several megabasepairs 1,2 and widened to include small variants that are larger than 50 basepairs in size 3,4. Currently, approximately 7 million CNVs identified in 1 million variant regions are catalogued in the Database of Genomic Variants (DGV) 5,6. Half the identified CNVs overlap with protein-coding regions, which results in gene expression changes 7. CNVs have been confirmed to play important roles in human diseases; for example, glycophorin CNVs in malaria resistance 8 , beta-defensin CNVs in Psoriasis 9,10 , CNVs in 15q11.2 for the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex in schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease 11,12 , and some pathogenic CNVs in developmental delay, autism spectrum disorders, and various congenital malformations 13,14. Furthermore, somatic copy number aberrations have been considered to be associated with human cancers and to categorize the subtypes of cancer 15 , such as breast cancer 16,17 , lung cancer 18,19 , and colorectal cancer 20,21. Array comparative genomic hybridization 22,23 and single nucleotide polymorphism arrays 24,25 have been used to detect CNVs over the past few years; however, the boundaries of CNVs cannot be explicitly identified due to the sparse probe coverage. Recently, next-generation sequencing (NGS) 26,27 has provided a more accurate option for CNV identification and breakpoint prediction through the high-resolution analysis of sequential DNA nucleotide bases. Various strategies, including read depth 28-36 , paired-end mapping 37-40 , split read 41-43 , assembly 44-46 and integrative approaches 47-51...