METHOD FOR SPATIAL TAGGING AND ANALYSING NUCLEIC ACIDS IN A BIOLOGICAL SPECIMEN

摘要

The present invention relates to methods for spatial tagging of nucleic acid molecules in a biological specimen and in particular to a method comprising: (a) providing a solid substrate on which multiple species of capture probes are immobilized such that each species occupies a distinct position on the solid substrate, wherein said probes are for a primer extension reaction and wherein each species of said capture probes comprise a nucleic acid molecule comprising: (i) a cleavage domain for releasing the capture probe from the surface of the solid substrate, (ii) a positional domain that corresponds to the position of the capture probe on the solid substrate, and (iii) a capture domain; (b) contacting said solid substrate with a biological specimen; and (c) releasing said capture probes from the surface of the solid substrate under conditions that allow nucleic acids of the biological specimen to hybridise to the capture domain in said capture probes and simultaneously and/or subsequently extending said capture probes using the nucleic acid molecules hybridised to the capture probes as extension templates to produce extended probes thereby spatially tagging the nucleic acids of the biological specimen, wherein step (c) comprises contacting said solid substrate with an aqueous reaction mixture comprising: (i) a polymerase enzyme capable of extending said capture probes using the nucleic acid molecules hybridised to the capture probes as extension templates; and (ii) means for releasing said capture probes from the surface of the solid substrate.