STAR Protocols (Jun 2022)

Isolation and RNA sequencing of single nuclei from Drosophila tissues

  • Colleen N. McLaughlin,
  • Yanyan Qi,
  • Stephen R. Quake,
  • Liqun Luo,
  • Hongjie Li

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 3, no. 2
p. 101417

Abstract

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Summary: Many insect cells are encapsulated within the exoskeleton and cannot be dissociated intact, making them inaccessible to single-cell transcriptomic profiling. We have used single-nucleus RNA sequencing to extract transcriptomic information from multiple Drosophila tissues. Here, we describe procedures for the (1) dissociation of single nuclei, (2) isolation of single nuclei using two popular cell sorters, and (3) preparation of libraries for Smart-seq2 and 10× Genomics. This protocol enables generation of high-quality transcriptomes from single nuclei and can be applied to other species.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to McLaughlin et al. (2021) and Li et al. (2022). : Publisher’s note: Undertaking any experimental protocol requires adherence to local institutional guidelines for laboratory safety and ethics.

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