New technique allows biologists to profile patterns of gene regulation in rare cell populations
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - 06:30
in Biology & Nature
Mapping all of the chemical, or epigenetic, changes to chromosomes that affect which genes are turned on or off—and thus determine the fate of genomically identical cells in the body—usually requires a large amount of starting cellular material. This technical limitation has impeded the analysis of gene regulation in many rare cell types and in small clinical biopsy samples. Now, a team of biologists led by A*STAR scientists has developed a protocol for characterizing these changes that requires up to 100 times fewer cells than previously needed. As a proof of principle, the researchers used the approach to chart which genes are activated or repressed in mouse reproductive cells that eventually give rise to eggs or sperm.