Genetic regulation of neuronal stem cell differentiation: a single-cell sequencing study in planarians

Cellular specialisation is incredibly prominent in the nervous system, where even in a single brain region, individual neurons may differ deeply in their molecular, anatomical, and functional features. Platyhelminthes like Schmidtea mediterranea continuously turn over all their tissues, including the brain, and can regenerate a perfectly organised and functional central nervous system de novo, from a small body section, within just a matter of days. Such extraordinary tissue plasticity finds its source in a population of somatic pluripotent adult stem cells: the neoblasts. However, the genetic networks that drive the differentiation of planarian adult stem cells into the neural lineage are still unknown. Here we show that single-cell expression profiling technologies allow disentangling neuronal heterogeneity to investigate the complexity of nervous system physiology. We profiled over 200K cells in different conditions of both wild-type and multiple knock-down animals. We uncovered neuronal cell populations differentially abundant and explored the transcriptional control of neural differentiation. Finally, we discuss transcriptome-based lineage trajectory prediction to reconstruct relationships between neuronal differentiation stages. Our work paves the way for studying neuronal diversity across the animal kingdom using single cell transcriptomics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Author dc:creator

• Emili, Elena

Contributors dc:contributor

• Solana, Jordi

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/qgh9-vp48

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:89c6f535-7cbe-4adc-a736-e9f296f4bed8:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1