Scientists develop live-cell transcriptome sequencing technology

A fertilized egg develops into a complex individual, normal somatic cells become tumor cells, cells are the basic unit of life, and the dynamic changes of their states are both the basis of healthy development and the cause of disease

On August 17, the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Bart Deplancke research group of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, and the Julia Vorholt research group of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology cooperated to publish a long article in Nature.

The research developed live-cell transcriptome sequencing technology (Live-seq), which for the first time achieved the ability to maintain cell survival after single-cell transcriptome sequencing

Changes in gene expression programs are important manifestations of cellular responses to exogenous and endogenous stimuli

Since Tang Fuchou pioneered single-cell mRNA sequencing in 2009, he no longer relies on the expression of a few genes to analyze cell types, but can use the state of the entire transcriptome to define cell types and states more systematically and comprehensively

In this study, researchers developed live-cell transcriptome sequencing technology (Live-seq), which maintains cell survival and function after single-cell transcriptome sequencing

Live-seq only sequences a small amount of cytoplasm, can the results represent the state of the cell? The study performed live-cell sequencing of multiple types and states of cells and compared results from single-cell sequencing in parallel

Because cells are still alive after testing, Live-seq enables the first continuous measurement of global gene expression in the same cell

Live-seq still has shortcomings: Compared with high-throughput single-cell transcriptome, Live-seq is a low-throughput method; Live-seq is not yet applicable in vivo; in highly polarized cells with uneven mRNA distribution ( For example, in nerve cells), Live-seq may not reflect the whole-cell transcriptome; the interference of multiple sampling on cells requires more research

The research work is supported by the National Key R&D Program and Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology Innovation

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.