scholarly journals Monitoring the Single-Cell Stress Response of the Diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana by Quantitative Real-Time Reverse Transcription-PCR

2013 ◽  
Vol 79 (6) ◽  
pp. 1850-1858 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Shi ◽  
Weimin Gao ◽  
Shih-hui Chao ◽  
Weiwen Zhang ◽  
Deirdre R. Meldrum

ABSTRACTDirectly monitoring the stress response of microbes to their environments could be one way to inspect the health of microorganisms themselves, as well as the environments in which the microorganisms live. The ultimate resolution for such an endeavor could be down to a single-cell level. In this study, using the diatomThalassiosira pseudonanaas a model species, we aimed to measure gene expression responses of this organism to various stresses at a single-cell level. We developed a single-cell quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-qPCR) protocol and applied it to determine the expression levels of multiple selected genes under nitrogen, phosphate, and iron depletion stress conditions. The results, for the first time, provided a quantitative measurement of gene expression at single-cell levels inT. pseudonanaand demonstrated that significant gene expression heterogeneity was present within the cell population. In addition, different expression patterns between single-cell- and bulk-cell-based analyses were also observed for all genes assayed in this study, suggesting that cell response heterogeneity needs to be taken into consideration in order to obtain accurate information that indicates the environmental stress condition.

FEBS Letters ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 584 (18) ◽  
pp. 4000-4008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hitoshi Shiku ◽  
Daisuke Okazaki ◽  
Junya Suzuki ◽  
Yasufumi Takahashi ◽  
Tatsuya Murata ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 79 (18) ◽  
pp. 5643-5651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn T. Eijlander ◽  
Oscar P. Kuipers

ABSTRACTSingle-cell methods are a powerful application in microbial research to study the molecular mechanism underlying phenotypic heterogeneity and cell-to-cell variability. Here, we describe the optimization and application of single-cell time-lapse fluorescence microscopy for the food spoilage bacteriumBacillus cereusspecifically. This technique is useful to study cellular development and adaptation, gene expression, protein localization, protein mobility, and cell-to-cell communication over time at the single-cell level. By adjusting existing protocols, we have enabled the visualization of growth and development of singleB. cereuscells within a microcolony over time. Additionally, several different fluorescent reporter proteins were tested in order to select the most suitable green fluorescent protein (GFP) and red fluorescent protein (RFP) candidates for visualization of growth stage- and cell compartment-specific gene expression inB. cereus. With a case study concerningcotDexpression during sporulation, we demonstrate the applicability of time-lapse fluorescence microscopy. It enables the assessment of gene expression levels, dynamics, and heterogeneity at the single-cell level. We show thatcotDis not heterogeneously expressed among cells of a subpopulation. Furthermore, we discourage using plasmid-based reporter fusions for such studies, due to an introduced heterogeneity through copy number differences. This stresses the importance of using single-copy integrated reporter fusions for single-cell studies.


2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergiy Kryvych ◽  
Victoria Nikiforova ◽  
Michel Herzog ◽  
Daniel Perazza ◽  
Joachim Fisahn

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shilo Rosenwasser ◽  
Miguel J. Frada ◽  
David Pilzer ◽  
Ron Rotkopf ◽  
Assaf Vardi

AbstractMarine viruses are major evolutionary and biogeochemical drivers of microbial life in the ocean. Host response to viral infection typically includes virus-induced rewiring of metabolic network to supply essential building blocks for viral assembly, as opposed to activation of anti-viral host defense. Nevertheless, there is a major bottleneck to accurately discern between viral hijacking strategies and host defense responses when averaging bulk population response. Here we use Emiliania huxleyi, a bloom-forming alga and its specific virus (EhV), as one of the most ecologically important host-virus model system in the ocean. Using automatic microfluidic setup to capture individual algal cells, we quantified host and virus gene expression on a single-cell resolution during the course of infection. We revealed high heterogeneity in viral gene expression among individual cells. Simultaneous measurements of expression profiles of host and virus genes at a single-cell level allowed mapping of infected cells into newly defined infection states and uncover a yet unrecognized early phase in host response that occurs prior to viral expression. Intriguingly, resistant cells emerged during viral infection, showed unique expression profiles of metabolic genes which can provide the basis for discerning between viral resistant and sensitive cells within heterogeneous populations in the marine environment. We propose that resolving host-virus arms race at a single-cell level will provide important mechanistic insights into viral life cycles and will uncover host defense strategies.


2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 10539-10539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Chieh Wang ◽  
Daniel Ramskold ◽  
Shujun Luo ◽  
Robin Li ◽  
Qiaolin Deng ◽  
...  

10539 Background: Melanoma is the most aggressive type of skin cancer. Late-stage melanoma is highly metastatic and currently lacks effective treatment. This discouraging clinical observation highlights the need for a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying melanoma initiation and progression and for developing new therapeutic approaches based on novel targets. Although genome-wide transcriptome analyses have been frequently used to study molecular alterations in clinical samples, it has been technically challenging to obtain the transcriptomic profiles at single-cell level. Methods: Using antibody-mediated magnetic activated cell separation (MACS), we isolated and individualized putative circulating melanoma cells (CMCs) from the blood samples of the melanoma patients at advance stages. The transcriptomic analysis based on a novel and robust mRNA-Seq protocol (Smart-Seq) was established and applied to the putative CMCs for single-cell profiling. Results: We have discovered distinct gene expression patterns, including new putative markers for CMCs. Meanwhile, the gene expression profiles derived of the CMC candidates isolated from the patient’s blood samples are closely-related to the expression profiles of other cells originated from human melanocytes, including normal melanocytes in primary culture and melanoma cell lines. Compared with existing methods, Smart-Seq has improved read coverage across transcripts, which provides advantage for better analyzing transcript isoforms and SNPs. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the techniques developed in this research for cell isolation and transcriptomic analyses can potentially be used for addressing many biological and clinical questions requiring genomewide transcriptome profiling in rare cells.


RSC Advances ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 4886-4893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Sun ◽  
Tim Olsen ◽  
Jing Zhu ◽  
Jianguo Tao ◽  
Brian Ponnaiya ◽  
...  

Gene expression analysis at the single-cell level is critical to understanding variations among cells in heterogeneous populations.


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