In situelectro-sequencing in three-dimensional tissues
AbstractPairwise mapping of single-cell gene expression and electrophysiology in intact three-dimensional (3D) tissues is crucial for studying electrogenic organs (e.g., brain and heart)1–5. Here, we introducein situelectro-sequencing (electro-seq), combining soft bioelectronics within situRNA sequencing to stably map millisecond-timescale cellular electrophysiology and simultaneously profile a large number of genes at single-cell level across 3D tissues. We appliedin situelectro-seq to 3D human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte (hiPSC-CM) patches, precisely registering the CM gene expression with electrophysiology at single-cell level, enabling multimodalin situanalysis. Such multimodal data integration substantially improved the dissection of cell types and the reconstruction of developmental trajectory from spatially heterogeneous tissues. Using machine learning (ML)-based cross-modal analysis,in situelectro-seq identified the gene-to-electrophysiology relationship over the time course of cardiac maturation. Further leveraging such a relationship to train a coupled autoencoder, we demonstrated the prediction of single-cell gene expression profile evolution using long-term electrical measurement from the same cardiac patch or 3D millimeter-scale cardiac organoids. As exemplified by cardiac tissue maturation,in situelectro-seq will be broadly applicable to create spatiotemporal multimodal maps and predictive models in electrogenic organs, allowing discovery of cell types and gene programs responsible for electrophysiological function and dysfunction.