On-chip separation and subsequent biomolecule analysis of single mother-daughter cell pairs

Abstract

Individual cells of an isogenic population can exhibit significant differences in their phenotypes. Due to the great variety of factors contributing to the emergence of cellular heterogeneity, the investigation of the underlying mechanisms is a demanding task. In recent years, several devices for cell heterogeneity studies have been developed. However, less emphasis has been put on inheritance noise studies requiring the separate analysis of individual mother cells from the associated daughters. Therefore, we designed a microfluidic platform for the separation and subsequent biomolecule analysis of single Saccharomyces cerevisiae mother-daughter cell pairs.