A comparative analysis of single-cell transcriptomic technologies in plants and animals

Abstract

The development of sequencing methods has resulted in the investigation of many unexplored research areas. Among the different sequencing methods, single-cell transcriptomics is versatile and has completely changed the researchers' perception of biological processes from tissue to single-cell. Single-cell transcriptomic is applied in various fields to reveal cell-cell interaction, phytopathogenic interactions, cell-specific genetic expression, regulatory pathways, and the effects of drugs on cells. Single-cell transcriptomics was initially applied to the model organisms, such as mice and Arabidopsis thaliana, and then later expanded to other non-model species. Recently, single-cell transcriptomics is revolutionizing plant and animal research. The direct application of single-cell transcriptomics has become simple with advanced sequencing methods and data analysis tools available. This review summarizes the latest knowledge on single-cell transcriptomics in plant and animal research. We emphasize various sequencing methods, bioinformatics software development, comparison between plant and animal single-cell transcriptomics studies, and the limitations and future prospectus.

Keywords

• Single-cell transcriptomics
• Sequencing
• Bioinformatics
• Plants
• Regulatory pathways