Recent advances in single-cell sequencing technologies

Abstract

Single-cell omics sequencing was first achieved for the transcriptome in 2009, which was followed by fast development of technologies for profiling the genome, DNA methylome, 3D genome architecture, chromatin accessibility, histone modifications, etc., in an individual cell. In this review we mainly focus on the recent progress in four topics in the single-cell omics field: single-cell epigenome sequencing, single-cell genome sequencing for lineage tracing, spatially resolved single-cell transcriptomics and third-generation sequencing platform-based single-cell omics sequencing. We also discuss the potential applications and future directions of these single-cell omics sequencing technologies for different biomedical systems, especially for the human stem cell field.

Keywords: epigenome sequencing; genome sequencing; human stem cell; lineage tracing; single-cell omics; third-generation sequencing.

Figure 1.

TGS-based single cell sequencing technologies. Red and green indicate the aspects that have been achieved, while the red indicates those where TGS-based methods have advantages over NGS-based methods. *The Nanopore-based technology may be used for directly sequencing the protein in the future. Note the differences between NGS-based and TGS-based single-cell omics sequencing technologies (compare this figure to Fig. 1 of Ref. 39)

Figure 2.

Characteristics of the current single-cell omics sequencing technology. Single-cell omics sequencing technology is shown shaped like a barrel with both long (developed) and short (developing) boards (left panel), and a radar chart shows the current technical states of nine major characteristics, with the more developed state of the character indicated by its being positioned more peripherally (right panel).