Fig. 2

Timeline of milestones in single-cell sequencing technology. A Tang et al.[15] developed the first single-cell transcriptional sequencing technology, i.e., mRNA-seq in 2009. B Islam et al. [16] established a single-cell labeled reverse transcription sequencing method, i.e., STRT-seq in 2011. C Ramsköld et al.[17] developed a new single-cell sequencing technology Smart-seq in 2012; in the same year, Hashimshony et al. [25] developed single-cell RNA-Seq by multiplexed linear amplification named CEL-seq. D Picelli et al. [18] made some improvements to the Smart-seq technology in 2013, i.e., Smart-seq2. E 10 × Genomics technology was developed as a new single-cell transcriptome sequencing method in 2017