TAS-Seq is a robust and sensitive amplification method for bead-based scRNA-seq

Area of Science:

• Genomics
• Molecular Biology
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) is crucial for dissecting cellular heterogeneity.
• Accurate cell composition is vital for analyzing cell-cell interactions from scRNA-seq data.
• Existing scRNA-seq methods like droplet- and plate-based techniques suffer from cell sampling bias, impacting dataset reliability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel scRNA-seq method, TAS-Seq, to overcome cell sampling bias.
• To enhance the accuracy of cell composition analysis in scRNA-seq datasets.
• To improve the detection sensitivity and robustness of cell-cell interaction analysis.

Main Methods:

• Developed terminator-assisted solid-phase cDNA amplification and sequencing (TAS-Seq).
• Utilized a platform combining terminators, terminal transferase, and nanowell/bead-based technology.
• TAS-Seq demonstrated high tolerance to variations in terminal transferase reactions.

Main Results:

• TAS-Seq data from murine and human lung samples strongly correlated with flow cytometry data.
• Achieved higher gene-detection sensitivity compared to 10X Chromium v2 and Smart-seq2.
• Showed more robust detection of cell-cell interactions and expression of growth factors/interleukins in specific cell subsets.

Conclusions:

• TAS-Seq offers a more accurate and sensitive approach for scRNA-seq.
• The method addresses limitations of existing terminal transferase-based techniques.
• Expanding TAS-Seq application will advance lung biology research and atlas construction at the single-cell level.