Single-Cell RNA Sequencing for Plant Research: Insights and Possible Benefits

Abstract

In recent years, advances in single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technologies have continued to change our views on biological systems by increasing the spatiotemporal resolution of our analysis to single-cell resolution. Application of scRNA-seq to plants enables the comprehensive characterization of both common and rare cell types and cell states, uncovering new cell types and revealing how cell types relate to each other spatially and developmentally. This review provides an overview of scRNA-seq methodologies, highlights the application of scRNA-seq in plant science, justifies why scRNA-seq is a master player of sequencing, and explains the role of single-cell transcriptomics technologies in environmental stress adaptation, alongside the challenges and prospects of single-cell transcriptomics. Collectively, we put forward a central role of single-cell sequencing in plant research.

Keywords: cell-to-cell heterogeneity; developmental trajectory; environmental stress adaptation; single-cell RNA-sequencing; transcriptomics.

Figure 1

Proposed workflow for single-cell RNA sequencing. Starting from dissociating target cells from the tissue, cell isolation, RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis by reverse transcriptase, single-cell sequencing, expression profile, and cell-type identification. Single-cell RNA sequencing enables unbiased, high-throughput, and high-resolution transcriptomic analysis of individual cells in plants.

Figure 2

Proposed model illustrating the difference between bulk RNA sequencing and single-cell RNA sequencing. In biological samples, single-cell transcriptomic data provide transcriptional heterogeneity among individual cells, while bulk RNA-sequencing techniques produce average gene expression information.