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Gene Expression Profiling and Regulatory Networks in Single Cells

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Abstract

Tissues and organs are composed of various kinds of cells including stem cells, progenitors, and terminally differentiated cells that have large variations of gene expression. Within a seemingly homogeneous cell population, gene expression levels may differ dramatically on a cell-to-cell level. However, differences or variations of individual cells are masked by the averaging effect of pooled samples in population analysis. Therefore, analyzing transcript levels for multiple genes across multiple individual cells could be key for understanding the unique characteristics of individual cells and for clarifying the complicated mechanisms controlling the function of individual cells. Recent advances in cDNA amplification techniques from single cell samples allow for analyzing gene expression patterns in individual cells. Amplified cDNAs are applicable to measurements of gene expression systems such as microarrays, DNA sequencing, and TaqMan assay-based high throughput nanofluidic real time PCR array analysis. Gene expression profiling at the single cell level allows us to identify specific sub-populations in heterogeneous cell populations in tissues and clarify the complex networks controlling the function of individual cells.

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Acknowledgments

The Funding Program for Next Generation World-Leading Researchers (NEXT Program) supported this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell Differentiation, The Sakaguchi Laboratory of Developmental Biology, School of Medicine, Keio University, 35 Shinano-machi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-8582, Japan

    Fumio Arai, Kentaro Hosokawa, Yoshiko Matsumoto, Hirofumi Toyama & Toshio Suda

Authors
  1. Fumio Arai
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  2. Kentaro Hosokawa
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  3. Yoshiko Matsumoto
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  4. Hirofumi Toyama
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  5. Toshio Suda
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Correspondence to Fumio Arai .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Pharmacology & Systems Therapeutics, Systems Biology Center New York, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, 10029, New York, USA

    Avi Ma'ayan

  2. Institute For Life Sciences, Southampton University, Highfield Campus, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom

    Ben D. MacArthur

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Arai, F., Hosokawa, K., Matsumoto, Y., Toyama, H., Suda, T. (2012). Gene Expression Profiling and Regulatory Networks in Single Cells. In: Ma'ayan, A., MacArthur, B. (eds) New Frontiers of Network Analysis in Systems Biology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4330-4_1

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