title: Quantitative single-cell RNA-seq with unique molecular identifiers.
abstract: Single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a powerful tool to reveal cellular heterogeneity, discover new cell types and characterize tumor microevolution. However, losses in cDNA synthesis and bias in cDNA amplification lead to severe quantitative errors. We show that molecular labels--random sequences that label individual molecules--can nearly eliminate amplification noise, and that microfluidic sample preparation and optimized reagents produce a fivefold improvement in mRNA capture efficiency.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Saiful
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zeisel
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Joost
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Gioele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: La Manno
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Pawel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zajac
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kasper
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lönnerberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Sten
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Linnarsson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015723:Gene Library; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA / Q000379:methods*; D049490:Systems Biology
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger