Obtaining of complete genomes of uncultured microbes by sequencing of single-cell genomes without whole genome amplification

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K22089
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 27:Chemical engineering and related fields
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: Hosokawa Masahito 早稲田大学, ナノ・ライフ創新研究機構, その他(招聘研究員) (60722981)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-06-28 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: シングルセル解析 / NGS / ゲノム

Outline of Final Research Achievements

More than 99% of the microbes in the environment cannot be cultured in the laboratory. To understand these uncultured microbes, direct analysis of their genomes is practical. In particular, "single-cell genomics," which decodes the genome sequence from a single cell, effectively obtains individual genome information from diverse microbial populations, but the accuracy of genome decoding has been an issue with conventional methods. In this study, we developed a technology to decode the genome from a single cell and reconstruct the sequence information into a complete genome, which was challenging to do with conventional methods and demonstrated its effectiveness in human intestinal bacteria.

Free Research Field

生物工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究で開発した技術を用いることで、これまで分析が困難であった難培養性の微生物のゲノム情報を精緻に得られる様になり、長い遺伝子クラスターの存在や遺伝子の欠失・挿入などの情報から、より詳細な微生物機能を知ることができる。具体的には、新種微生物の発見や有用遺伝子の探索などをより詳細に実施可能になる。ゲノム情報から培養化につながる手がかりを掴むことも可能であると考えられ、将来的に微生物を資源とした応用を広げる上で有用な技術である。