Question: Can GEMs be stored after the partitioning of single cells?
Answer: GEMs generated with the low throughput, standard, or high throughput assays should be transferred from the microfluidic chip to a PCR plate or strip tubes and can then be stored on ice (sealed with foil or capped) for up to 1 hour before starting the GEM-RT incubation. Storage on ice for longer than 1 hour will likely result in degradation of the RNA and may lead to loss of single-cell RNA-seq behavior if the emulsions are compromised.
After the RT step samples can be stored at +4°C for up to 72 hours, or at −20°C for up to a week.
Significant performance degradation is to be expected if the GEM samples are left at room temperature for any amount of time since, once the GEMs are formed, the enzyme, primers and cellular RNA are mixed together with various trace nuclease and protease activities from the cell lysates.
Products: Single Cell Gene Expression, Single Cell Immune Profiling