Microbial single-cell omics in situ

Metagenomics has enabled the understanding of the microbial composition and functional potential in various environments. Using laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) technology, we report high-quality microbial single-cell genomes or transcriptomes in complex samples such as mouse gut, human saliva, and tumor sections. Bacterial cells in close proximity to each other or to host cells could be directly analyzed using this single-cell approach. Bacterial cells in mice or human samples could be fluorescently labeled for single-cell visualization before collection. The high-quality single-cell transcriptome results allow us to delineate cell-fate commitment in Bacillus sporulation and preliminarily characterize gene expression from Bacteroides in a colorectal cancer sample. The method is scalable and precise and empowers insights about microbial populations and single-cell interactions with the host.