GARNet 2005

Single Cell Technologies Report from Jonathan Jones

Summary of discussion on single cell technologies at GARNet meeting Sept 2005

Present at meeting
J Jones, S Turner, K Lindsey, A Millar, P Gilmartin, J Doonan, C Turnbull, A Hall, R Datla and J Milner

The following points emerged.

Systems biology in yeast and other organisms is greatly simplified if only one cell type can be analyzed. However, even in yeast cultures, there can be considerable heterogeneity between cells in a culture.

In mammalian cells, when one cell type is analyzed, a gradual increase of an mRNA can be detected in response to an elicitor, but even this can be misleading, because when responses are monitored in individual cells, a wave-like response is detected, which is lost by lack of synchrony when responses of many cells are pooled.

Laser capture microdissection is difficult to apply to a single cell type because of yield and because of the need for fixation (unless cryosectioning can be used). However it can be applied to tissues (meristems, or specific regions of an embryo).

Solutions can be envisaged for cell types in the leaf and other tissues for transcription profiling; however, solutions do not currently exist for cell-type specific proteomics and metabolomics.

Enhancing detection sensitivity with new fluorescent dyes or tags to proteins of interest would be useful to follow their abundance and location in single cells over a time course.

The BBSRC seeks to encourage plant science into a more quantitative and “systems” level of analysis. This is a good aspiration; we all need to place our work on specific problems in the context of the biology of the whole organism.

However, for this aspiration to be realistic, we need considerable technology development. The Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle deploys much of its resources on technology. GARNet strongly encourages BBSRC to include support for technology development in its funding for systems biology in plants. Among possible targets for such technology development, establishing systems for monitoring the properties of and changes in single cell types is important.