Using single-molecule fluorescence in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry to count RNA molecules in single cells in zebrafish embryos

Abstract

Taming gene expression variability is critical for robust pattern formation during embryonic development. Here, we describe an optimized protocol for single-molecule fluorescence in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry in zebrafish embryos. We detail how to count segmentation clock RNAs and calculate their variability among neighboring cells. This approach is easily adaptable to count RNA numbers of any gene and calculate transcriptional variability among neighboring cells in diverse biological settings. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Keskin et al. (2018),¹ Zinani et al. (2021),² and Zinani et al. (2022).³.

Keywords: Cell Biology; Developmental biology; In Situ Hybridization; Microscopy; Model Organisms; Molecular Biology; Molecular/Chemical Probes; Single-molecule Assays.