Single-cell Miniaturized Total RNA-seq (STORM-seq) in cell lines and primary tissues

Here we introduce STORM-seq, a standardized and generally available approach to profiling total RNA in single cells by miniaturization of the Takara SMART-seq Stranded (SSS) kit. The use of nanoliter-scale reaction volumes allows STORM-seq to efficiently scale to hundreds of high-complexity single cell libraries per run, from dissociated tissues and non-adherent cells, with greater than 99% per cell/library success. The use of ribosomal RNA depletion and random hexamer priming, rather than oligo-dT (poly-A) selection, allows comprehensive, whole-transcriptome analysis in each individual cell. STORM-seq recovers both coding and non-coding transcripts at an equal or greater rate to full volume reactions. Applying the method to cultured K562 cells and primary human fallopian tube epithelial (FTE) cells results in equivalent or better gene detection than manual preparation. Across all transcript biotypes, additional mRNA and lncRNA transcripts are detected beyond SSS or SMART-seq2. STORM-seq libraries from primary human FTE reveal intermediate cell types not observed by other technologies, with clear transitional significance visible upon data integration. STORM-seq provides a scalable, efficient protocol to recover deep whole transcriptomes from individual cells while minimizing costs. Optimizing and increasing the throughput of ribo-reduced total single-cell RNA-seq to investigate cellular heterogeneity and the differentiation trajectory in human fallopian tube epithelium Please note that the raw data files for the primary tissue samples are being uploaded to dbGaP.