Imaging the transcriptome in situ with high accuracy has been a major challenge in single cell biology, particularly hindered by the limits of optical resolution and the density of transcripts in single cells [1][2][3][4][5] . Here, we demonstrate seqFISH+, that can image the mRNAs for 10,000 genes in single cells with high accuracy and sub-diffraction-limit resolution, in the mouse brain cortex, subventricular zone, and the olfactory bulb, using a standard confocal microscope. The transcriptome level profiling of seqFISH+ allows unbiased identification of cell classes and their spatial organization in tissues. In addition, seqFISH+ reveals subcellular mRNA localization patterns in cells and ligand-receptor pairs across neighboring cells. This technology demonstrates the ability to generate spatial cell atlases and to perform discovery-driven studies of biological processes in situ. Spatial genomics, the analysis of the transcriptome and other genomic information directly in the native context of tissues, is crucial to many fields in biology, including neuroscience and developmental biology. Pioneering work in single molecule Fluorescence in situ Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprintsUsers may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:http://

SUMMARY Understanding the structure-function relationships at cellular, circuit, and organ-wide scale requires 3D anatomical and phenotypical maps, currently unavailable for many organs across species. At the root of this knowledge gap is the absence of a method that enables whole-organ imaging. Herein we present techniques for tissue clearing in which whole organs and bodies are rendered macromolecule-permeable and optically-transparent, thereby exposing their cellular structure with intact connectivity. We describe PACT, a protocol for passive tissue clearing and immunostaining of intact organs; RIMS, a refractive index matching media for imaging thick tissue; and PARS, a method for whole-body clearing and immunolabeling. We show that in rodents PACT, RIMS, and PARS are compatible with endogenous-fluorescence, immunohistochemistry, RNA single-molecule FISH, long-term storage, and microscopy with cellular and subcellular resolution. These methods are applicable for high-resolution, high-content mapping and phenotyping of normal and pathological elements within intact organs and bodies.

In a living cell, gene expression--the transcription of DNA to messenger RNA followed by translation to protein--occurs stochastically, as a consequence of the low copy number of DNA and mRNA molecules involved. These stochastic events of protein production are difficult to observe directly with measurements on large ensembles of cells owing to lack of synchronization among cells. Measurements so far on single cells lack the sensitivity to resolve individual events of protein production. Here we demonstrate a microfluidic-based assay that allows real-time observation of the expression of beta-galactosidase in living Escherichia coli cells with single molecule sensitivity. We observe that protein production occurs in bursts, with the number of molecules per burst following an exponential distribution. We show that the two key parameters of protein expression--the burst size and frequency--can be either determined directly from real-time monitoring of protein production or extracted from a measurement of the steady-state copy number distribution in a population of cells. Application of this assay to probe gene expression in individual budding yeast and mouse embryonic stem cells demonstrates its generality. Many important proteins are expressed at low levels, and are thus inaccessible by current genomic and proteomic techniques. This microfluidic single cell assay opens up possibilities for system-wide characterization of the expression of these low copy number proteins.

We present an analytical framework describing the steady-state distribution of protein concentration in live cells, considering that protein production occurs in random bursts with an exponentially distributed number of molecules. We extend this framework for cases of transcription autoregulation and noise propagation in a simple genetic network. This model allows for the extraction of kinetic parameters of gene expression from steady-state distributions of protein concentration in a cell population, which are available from single cell data obtained by flow cytometry or fluorescence microscopy.

Eukaryotic genomes are packaged into a 3-dimensional structure in the nucleus. Current methods for studying genome-wide structure are based on proximity ligation. However, this approach can fail to detect known structures, such as interactions with nuclear bodies, because these DNA regions can be too far apart to directly ligate. Accordingly, our overall understanding of genome organization remains incomplete. Here, we develop split-pool recognition of interactions by tag extension (SPRITE), a method that enables genome-wide detection of higher-order interactions within the nucleus. Using SPRITE, we recapitulate known structures identified by proximity ligation and identify additional interactions occurring across larger distances, including two hubs of inter-chromosomal interactions that are arranged around the nucleolus and nuclear speckles. We show that a substantial fraction of the genome exhibits preferential organization relative to these nuclear bodies. Our results generate a global model whereby nuclear bodies act as inter-chromosomal hubs that shape the overall packaging of DNA in the nucleus.