Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Lab Chip. 2017 Jun 13;17(12):2032-2045. doi: 10.1039/c7lc00241f.
Nucleic acids encode the information of life, programming cellular functions and dictating many biological outcomes. Differentiating between cells based on their nucleic acid programs is, thus, a powerful way to unravel the genetic bases of many phenotypes. This is especially important considering that most cells exist in heterogeneous populations, requiring them to be isolated before they can be studied. Existing flow cytometry techniques, however, are unable to reliably recover specific cells based on nucleic acid content. Nucleic acid cytometry is a new field built on droplet microfluidics that allows robust identification, sorting, and sequencing of cells based on specific nucleic acid biomarkers. This review highlights applications that immediately benefit from the approach, biological questions that can be addressed for the first time with it, and considerations for building successful workflows.
核酸编码了生命信息，编程了细胞功能，并决定了许多生物学结果。因此，根据细胞的核酸程序对其进行区分是揭示许多表型遗传基础的一种有力方法。考虑到大多数细胞存在于异质群体中，在对其进行研究之前需要将其分离，这一点尤为重要。然而，现有的流式细胞术技术无法可靠地根据核酸含量回收特定细胞。核酸细胞术是一个基于液滴微流控技术的新兴领域，它允许基于特定核酸生物标志物对细胞进行稳健的识别、分选和测序。本综述重点介绍了立即受益于该方法的应用、可以首次用该方法解决的生物学问题，以及构建成功工作流程的注意事项。
