Microorganisms found in the natural environment can significantly affect the ecosystem. The human body can also be viewed as an environment inhabited by a collection of diverse microorganisms, which play a critical role in determining a person's health condition. Single-cell genomics of mixed microbiome samples has greatly accelerated the human microbiome research, and it provides access to individual microbial genomes without the requirement of microbial cultivation. It has led to the discovery of microorganisms with novel metabolic features, or even an alternative genetic code. To better determine which cells are to be sequenced, targeted cell capture is becoming a highly attractive alternative for studying environmental microbes and human microbiome.

There are several methods for identity-based targeting of populations, such as FACS, PCR screening and function-driven or activity-driven approaches. For example, PCR screening of amplified single cell genomes by targeting marker genes (e.g. 16S/18S rRNAs or customer-specified protein-coding genes) enables individual cell analysis in complex environmental or clinical samples. Antibodies are also generally used to isolate cells of interest based on cell-surface markers. We can design the optimal targeted call capture scheme for your specific microbial single-cell sequencing projects.