Development of a non-destructive method to track the transcriptome of living cells across time

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K19275
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 43:Biology at molecular to cellular levels, and related fields
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Yasuyuki Ohkawa 九州大学, 生体防御医学研究所, 教授 (80448430)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-06-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: トランスクリプトーム / ライブセル / 系譜追跡技術

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The phenotype of an individual is established through development and differentiation and changes dynamically until it decays, leading to aging and death. Transcriptome analysis has been widely used as the information that best reflects the state of the changing phenotype. On the other hand, current transcriptome analysis cannot follow changes in the same cell because it requires the destruction of the cell and extraction of RNA. In this study, we developed a non-destructive RNAseq method for living cells based on our own previous findings that endogenous RNA correlates with a small amount of RNA contained in exosomes secreted by cells. The project has been successfully completed and is now being applied to a variety of samples.

Free Research Field

トランスクリプトミクス

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究が基盤とする技術は微量RNA操作技術である。現在単一細胞トランスクリプトームが注目を浴びる中、その多くはキット化された商用プラットフォームに依存しており汎用的な反面、微量RNAを操作する場面を研究者から奪っている一面が存在する。本研究が行うごく少量のRNAを扱う基礎技術のプロトコール化と普及は次の新たな解析技術の基盤となる基礎研究能力の喪失を防ぎ、今後のニーズに即した研究基盤の強化につながると考えている。