Plate-based long-read single cell gene- and isoform transcriptome profiling using scLIS-seq

While contemporary short-read single cell RNA-sequencing allows to decipher tissue composition, discrimination between transcript isoforms remains challenging. Here, we propose single cell long-read isoform sequencing (scLIS-seq), and highlight its performance on Jurkat and HEK293T cells in direct comparison to Smart-seq3xpress (SS3X). scLIS-seq demonstrates sensitive gene and transcript detection with high correlation compared to SS3X and detects at least 10 isoforms of over 2600 genes, while 17.1–21.6% of the reads supported novel isoforms. Direct comparison of the scLIS-seq isoforms to SS3X-reconstructed isoforms demonstrated scLIS-seq’s superiority. Overall, scLIS-seq provides a powerful scRNA-seq strategy, enabling long-read transcriptome analysis and isoform detection.