Host and virus gene expression profiling at a single cell level.

(A) Automated microfluidic capture of a single E. huxleyi cell in the C1 chip (red: chlorophyll autoflouresence, indicated by a black arrow), the image on the right is a zoom into the image of a single cell. (B,C) Examination of detection level of single-cell gene expression analysis. A set of ERCC RNA molecules were spiked to each C1 well and their level was determined using multiplex qPCR. (B) The fraction of wells with positive qPCR reaction (Ct < 30) for each examined spike. (C) The correlation between the average level of expression (Et = 30-Ct) value and the number of spike molecule. (D) Distribution of host and virus genes expression among individual cells. The average expression values of host and viral genes among isolated single cells was calculated and the distribution is presented.