1.Single-cell RNA Sequencing Reveals Thoracolumbar Vertebra Heterogeneity and Rib-genesis in Pigs.
Jianbo LI ; Ligang WANG ; Dawei YU ; Junfeng HAO ; Longchao ZHANG ; Adeniyi C ADEOLA ; Bingyu MAO ; Yun GAO ; Shifang WU ; Chunling ZHU ; Yongqing ZHANG ; Jilong REN ; Changgai MU ; David M IRWIN ; Lixian WANG ; Tang HAI ; Haibing XIE ; Yaping ZHANG
Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics 2021;19(3):423-436
Development of thoracolumbar vertebra (TLV) and rib primordium (RP) is a common evolutionary feature across vertebrates, although whole-organism analysis of the expression dynamics of TLV- and RP-related genes has been lacking. Here, we investigated the single-cell transcriptome landscape of thoracic vertebra (TV), lumbar vertebra (LV), and RP cells from a pig embryo at 27 days post-fertilization (dpf) and identified six cell types with distinct gene expression signatures. In-depth dissection of the gene expression dynamics and RNA velocity revealed a coupled process of osteogenesis and angiogenesis during TLV and RP development. Further analysis of cell type-specific and strand-specific expression uncovered the extremely high level of HOXA10 3'-UTR sequence specific to osteoblasts of LV cells, which may function as anti-HOXA10-antisense by counteracting the HOXA10-antisense effect to determine TLV transition. Thus, this work provides a valuable resource for understanding embryonic osteogenesis and angiogenesis underlying vertebrate TLV and RP development at the cell type-specific resolution, which serves as a comprehensive view on the transcriptional profile of animal embryo development.