Institute of Quantitative Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology, School of Biological Sciences, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, UK.
Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
RNA Biol. 2021 Jul;18(7):1063-1084. doi: 10.1080/15476286.2020.1870362. Epub 2021 Jan 27.
Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) has emerged in recent years as a breakthrough technology to understand RNA metabolism at cellular resolution. In addition to allowing new cell types and states to be identified, scRNA-seq can permit cell-type specific differential gene expression changes, pre-mRNA processing events, gene regulatory networks and single-cell developmental trajectories to be uncovered. More recently, a new wave of multi-omic adaptations and complementary spatial transcriptomics workflows have been developed that facilitate the collection of even more holistic information from individual cells. These developments have unprecedented potential to provide penetrating new insights into the basic neural cell dynamics and molecular mechanisms relevant to the nervous system in both health and disease. In this review we discuss this maturation of single-cell RNA-sequencing over the past decade, and review the different adaptations of the technology that can now be applied both at different scales and for different purposes. We conclude by highlighting how these methods have already led to many exciting discoveries across neuroscience that have furthered our cellular understanding of the neurological disease.
单细胞 RNA 测序（scRNA-seq）近年来已成为一种突破性技术，可在细胞分辨率水平上了解 RNA 代谢。除了能够识别新的细胞类型和状态外，scRNA-seq 还可以揭示细胞类型特异性差异基因表达变化、前体 mRNA 加工事件、基因调控网络和单细胞发育轨迹。最近，出现了一波新的多组学适应和互补的空间转录组学工作流程，这些流程有助于从单个细胞中收集更全面的信息。这些发展具有前所未有的潜力，可以深入了解健康和疾病相关的神经系统的基本神经细胞动力学和分子机制。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了过去十年中单细胞 RNA 测序的成熟过程，并回顾了该技术的不同适应方法，这些方法现在可以应用于不同的规模和目的。最后，我们强调了这些方法如何已经在神经科学领域取得了许多令人兴奋的发现，这些发现进一步加深了我们对神经疾病的细胞理解。
