TY - JOUR

T1 - Single-cell RNA sequencing technologies and applications

T2 - A brief overview

AU - Jovic, Dragomirka

AU - Liang, Xue

AU - Zeng, Hua

AU - Lin, Lin

AU - Xu, Fengping

AU - Luo, Yonglun

N1 - © 2022 The Authors. Clinical and Translational Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Shanghai Institute of Clinical Bioinformatics.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technology has become the state-of-the-art approach for unravelling the heterogeneity and complexity of RNA transcripts within individual cells, as well as revealing the composition of different cell types and functions within highly organized tissues/organs/organisms. Since its first discovery in 2009, studies based on scRNA-seq provide massive information across different fields making exciting new discoveries in better understanding the composition and interaction of cells within humans, model animals and plants. In this review, we provide a concise overview about the scRNA-seq technology, experimental and computational procedures for transforming the biological and molecular processes into computational and statistical data. We also provide an explanation of the key technological steps in implementing the technology. We highlight a few examples on how scRNA-seq can provide unique information for better understanding health and diseases. One important application of the scRNA-seq technology is to build a better and high-resolution catalogue of cells in all living organism, commonly known as atlas, which is key resource to better understand and provide a solution in treating diseases. While great promises have been demonstrated with the technology in all areas, we further highlight a few remaining challenges to be overcome and its great potentials in transforming current protocols in disease diagnosis and treatment.

AB - Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technology has become the state-of-the-art approach for unravelling the heterogeneity and complexity of RNA transcripts within individual cells, as well as revealing the composition of different cell types and functions within highly organized tissues/organs/organisms. Since its first discovery in 2009, studies based on scRNA-seq provide massive information across different fields making exciting new discoveries in better understanding the composition and interaction of cells within humans, model animals and plants. In this review, we provide a concise overview about the scRNA-seq technology, experimental and computational procedures for transforming the biological and molecular processes into computational and statistical data. We also provide an explanation of the key technological steps in implementing the technology. We highlight a few examples on how scRNA-seq can provide unique information for better understanding health and diseases. One important application of the scRNA-seq technology is to build a better and high-resolution catalogue of cells in all living organism, commonly known as atlas, which is key resource to better understand and provide a solution in treating diseases. While great promises have been demonstrated with the technology in all areas, we further highlight a few remaining challenges to be overcome and its great potentials in transforming current protocols in disease diagnosis and treatment.

KW - Animals

KW - Gene Expression Profiling/methods

KW - Sequence Analysis, RNA/methods

KW - Single-Cell Analysis/methods

KW - Technology

KW - Whole Exome Sequencing

U2 - 10.1002/ctm2.694

DO - 10.1002/ctm2.694

M3 - Review

C2 - 35352511

VL - 12

JO - Clinical and Translational Medicine

JF - Clinical and Translational Medicine

SN - 2001-1326

IS - 3

M1 - e694

ER -