Single-cell analysis for proteome and related researches

Single-cell proteome analysis is essential to cellular heterogeneity research. Because single cell is too small to analyze, conventional proteome analytical methods are not applicative to single-cell proteome analysis. Therefore, it is urgent to develop single-cell proteome analytical methods. Although it is a great challenge, many advances have been achieved in recent years. In label based methods, around 50 target proteins from single cells can be simultaneously analyzed with high throughput. In MS (non-label) based methods, over 200 proteins from single somatic cells can be identified by ultra-sensitive nanoLC-MS/MS. It has broken through the bottle-neck of protein number of label based methods, and made whole proteome analysis of single somatic cells promising. Herein, we have reviewed recent published methods of single-cell proteome analysis, and given a guidance of method selection for applications. Finally, we have offered our opinions for developing single-cell proteome analytical methods in the future.