Table 1.

Summary of scRNA-seq techniques

Techniques	Single cell isolation techniques	Capture Platforms	cDNA ampl.	Strand specific	Multi-plexing	UMI (bp)	Features	Year /(Refs)
Full-length transcript
Tang method	Manual	PCR tubes	PCR	X	X		Splice variant detection	2009 (4)
SMART-seq	FACS	Plate based	PCR	X	X		Template switching reaction	2012 (7)
SMART-seq2	FACS	Plate based	PCR	X	X		Improved yield, coverage and accruacy	2013 (22)
Quartz-seq	FACS	Plate based	PCR	X	X		Single PCR tube reaction without any purification	2013 (8)
MATQ-seq	FACS	Plate based	PCR	O	O		Whole gene body coverage	2017 (20)
5' End transcript
STRT	FACS	Plate based	PCR	O	X		Highly multiplexed, TSS detection	2012 (17)
STRT-seq-2i	Limiting dilution or FACS	Microarray platform custom capture plates	PCR	O	O	6	Imaging checkpoint available	2017 (26)
WaferGen	Multi-sample nanodispenser (MSND)	Nanowell based (ICELL8)	PCR	O	O	10	Imaging software to identify nanowells	2017 (29)
3‘ End transcript
CEL-seq	FACS	Plate based	IVT	O	X		First to use linear RNA amplification	2012 (22)
MARS-seq	Microfluidic, FACS	Plate based	IVT	O	O	4	Introduced automated massively	2014 (23)
CytoSeq	Recursive Poision loading	Nanowell	PCR	O	O	8	First to present scalable mRNA cytometry	2015 (34)
Drop-seq	Double poisson loading, Microfluidic channel	Droplet based	PCR	O	O	8	Coencapsulation of single cells	2015 (29)
InDrop	Super Poisson loading	Droplet based	IVT	O	O	6	Cells are captured and barcoded	2015 (27)
CEL-seq2	Manual, Microfluidic, FACS, C1	Microfluidic chip	IVT	O	O	6	Implemented the UMI	2016 (24)
DroNC-seq	Poisson loading	Droplet based	PCR	O	O	8	High throughput	2017 (32)
Chromium 10x	Super Poisson loading	Droplet based (Single Cell A Chip)	PCR	O	O	10	High throughput, process up	2017 (33)
SPLiT-seq	No partitioning into compartments	Plate based	PCR	O	O		Can sequence fixed cells or nuclei	2018 (36)
Quartz-seq2	FACS	Plate based	PCR	O	O	8	Major improvement of Poly(A)tagging	2018 (30)
MARS-seq2	FACS	Plate based	IVT	O	O	8	Integrated pipelines for index sorting	2019 (35)