Single cell genomics: an individual look at microbes

Current Opinion in Microbiology

Available online 29 September 2012

Single cell genomics: an individual look at microbes

Open Access Article 

• Ramunas Stepanauskas 

• Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, 60 Bigelow Drive, P.O. Box 380, East Boothbay, ME 04544, United States

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2012.09.001, How to Cite or Link Using DOI

Single cell genomics (SCG) uncovers hereditary information at the most basic level of biological organization. It is emerging as a powerful complement to cultivation-based and microbial community-focused research approaches. SCG has been instrumental in identifying metabolic features, evolutionary histories and inter-organismal interactions of the uncultured microbial groups that dominate many environments and biogeochemical cycles. The SCG approach also holds great promise in microbial microevolution studies and industrial bioprospecting. Methods for SCG consist of a series of integrated processes, beginning with the collection and preservation of environmental samples, followed by physical separation, lysis and whole genome amplification of individual cells, and culminating in genomic sequencing and the inference of encoded biological features.