Imaging individual mRNA molecules using multiple singly labeled probes
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Updated: Jun 30, 2026

Method for Labeling Transcripts in Individual Escherichia coli Cells for Single-molecule Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization Experiments
Published on: December 21, 2017
Arjun Raj1, Patrick van den Bogaard, Scott A Rifkin
1Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. arjunraj@mit.edu
Abstract:
We describe a method for imaging individual mRNA molecules in fixed cells by probing each mRNA species with 48 or more short, singly labeled oligonucleotide probes. This makes each mRNA molecule visible as a computationally identifiable fluorescent spot by fluorescence microscopy. We demonstrate simultaneous detection of three mRNA species in single cells and mRNA detection in yeast, nematodes, fruit fly wing discs, and mammalian cell lines and neurons.
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