Single Cell qPCR Expression Correlation and qPCR Tomography

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Technology Networks

Expression in seemingly like cells collected either from tissue or from culture shows very large cell-to-cell variation. For a single cell type the variation is consistent with a lognormal distribution. Hence, the expression of a “typical cell” is given by the geometric average of the cells’ expressions rather than the arithmetic average measured on a population of cells. Genes with unrelated functions are at a certain time point expressed at different levels, while genes having common functions show highly correlated expression. In some cases subtypes of cells can be identified based on genes’ expression levels and correlation between genes’ expressions in the single cell. This ability to phenotype single cells is expected to be valuable in studies of natural development at early stages as well as in healing processes, and also in malignant growth, where the phenotypic characterization may help identifying clones present and guide therapeutic decisions.