Single cell sequencing identifies novel sub-populations of breast cancer cells selected under hypoxia

During tumour growth cancer cells are subject to and selected by microenvironmental stress. The selection of such cells allows for continued growth and survival, during hypoxia, acidosis, nutritional deprivation, drug treatment and radiation. However, there is great microenvironmental heterogeneity in every tumour. Must studies of gene regulation in vitro investigate whole cell populations, often by western blotting or mRNA expression. Thus, the individual variability of gene induction that could lead to selection, and basal cell molecular variability on which the selection operates, basic Darwinian principles, are not defined. We previously showed that two distinct populations can often be induced in epithelial tumour cell lines under hypoxia, identified by induction of Carbonic Anhydrase 9 [CA9].Here, we investigated the heterogeneity of breast cancer cells, and the relationship to the CA9 positive population in hypoxia, by using single cell sequencing analysis. Examination of the MCF7 breast cancer cell line using single cell transcriptomics (smartseq2)