Revolutionary method in Würzburg: General activity decrypts!

Revolutionary method in Würzburg: General activity decrypts!

A groundbreaking new method for analyzing genetic activity in bacterial colonies was developed at the Julius Maximilians University (JMU) Würzburg and at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based infection research (Hiri). The innovative technology, known as bacterial MATQ-SEQ, represents a variant of single cell transcriptomics and aims to better understand the diversity within bacterial populations, especially in the case of pathogens. According to the JMU, the method offers a high cell retention rate of 95%, which takes off from previous protocols that have loss rate of up to 70%. MatQ-SEQ also analyzes the activity of 300 to 600 genes per bacterial cell.

The publication of this research work in the journal Nature Protocols includes a step-by-step instructions for creating individual bacteria transcriptoms and thus represents a valuable resource for scientists who deal with the analysis of gene expression. The entire process for carrying out MATQ-SEQ takes about five days and is ideal for smaller samples of hundreds of cells, while larger samples with hundreds of thousands of cells require different protocols, which, however, result in higher loss rates and less recorded genes.

technology and accessibility

In addition, the Helmholtz community reports that the single cell RNA sequencing (SCRNA-SEQ) provides insights into gene expression and regulatory networks of individual cells. This technology was optimized in accordance with the requirements and challenges of microbes research. It was found that the procedure is more robust and has a reduced failure rate when reading genetic information. Before this improvement, earlier techniques such as mass RNA sequencing only provided average values ​​of a cell population, which could not be recorded differences between individual bacteria.

research results and challenges

The research work, led by Jörg Vogel, director of the Institute for Molecular Infection Biology and Hiri, have already shown success in the validation of the new method of salmonella under various growth conditions. With this technique it is now possible to demonstrate specific regulatory small RAHNAs (SRNAS) at single cell level and to confirm the phenotypical heterogeneity within a cell population.

The improvements also enable the examination of cell activities in normal condition and reactions to medication, which is of crucial importance for the development of new therapeutic approaches. The challenges, in particular the small cell sizes compared to eukaryotes, were successfully addressed by adaptive methods for cell lysis and recording bacterial transcripts.

This progress opened a new chapter in the single cell RNA sequencing, which not only enables access to more precise data, but also supports research on the adaptation of bacteria to its surroundings. The complete results of this study are published in the Journal mbio and could make a significant contribution to understanding infection processes.

For interested readers, more information about the developments in this research direction can be found in the corresponding scientific articles and on the websites of the institutions involved. The JMU reports that this new methodology offers great opportunities for the understanding of bacterial diversity and their adaptation mechanisms. The support of innovative research approaches is crucial for combating bacterial infections and the development of new therapy approaches. Further details are also in Nature Protocols and at the Helmholtz-gemeinschaft