Single-Cell Transcriptomics Applied in Plants

Abstract

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) is a high-tech method for characterizing the expression patterns of heterogeneous cells in the same tissue and has changed our evaluation of biological systems by increasing the number of individual cells analyzed. However, the full potential of scRNA-seq, particularly in plant science, has not yet been elucidated. To explore the utilization of scRNA-seq technology in plants, we firstly conducted a comprehensive review of significant scRNA-seq findings in the past few years. Secondly, we introduced the research and applications of scRNA-seq technology to plant tissues in recent years, primarily focusing on model plants, crops, and wood. We then offered five databases that could facilitate the identification of distinct expression marker genes for various cell types. Finally, we analyzed the potential problems, challenges, and directions for applying scRNA-seq in plants, with the aim of providing a theoretical foundation for the better use of this technique in future plant research.

Keywords: crops; databases; model plants; single-cell RNA sequencing; wood.

Figure 2

Application of single-cell RNA-sequencing in major model plants, crops, and wood [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,101,102,103,104,105].

Figure 1

The main technology used in single-cell RNA-sequencing. I, technique; II, cell numbers; III, sequencing depth. Pink circles represent low-throughput sequencing technology; purple circles represent high-throughput sequencing technology. The size of the circle indicates the number of cells.