Single-cell and Spatial Omics Technologies:Deciphering The Process of Animal Skeletal Muscle Development
10.13865/j.cnki.cjbmb.2025.09.1276
- VernacularTitle:单细胞及空间组学技术:解析动物骨骼肌发育进程
- Author:
Ming-Fu XIONG
1
;
Si-Yuan KONG
;
Yong-Sheng ZHANG
Author Information
1. 石河子大学动物科技学院,动物科学,畜牧学,遗传育种与繁殖,新疆石河子 832003
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
skeletal muscle development;
single-cell transcriptomics(scRNA-seq);
spatial omics;
cel-lular heterogeneity;
animal husbandry breeding
- From:
Chinese Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
2025;41(11):1566-1578
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
As an important tissue of the body(accounting for approximately 40％of body weight),skel-etal muscle is composed of various cell types such as muscle fibers,muscle stem cells,and endothelial cells.It participates in physiological processes including movement,energy metabolism,and internal en-vironment homeostasis through temporal and spatial specific regulation.Its development is divided into two critical stages:embryonic and postnatal periods.Abnormal development can lead to diseases such as muscular dystrophy and directly affect the yield and quality of livestock meat.In recent years,the combi-nation of single-cell transcriptomics(scRNA-seq)and spatial omics(single-cell spatial omics technolo-gy)has provided a high-resolution research tool for analyzing the spatiotemporal dynamic regulatory net-work and intercellular interactions in skeletal muscle development.This article reviews the molecular mechanisms of skeletal muscle development and its application value in animal husbandry breeding,and systematically combs the research progress,analysis processes,data resources,and future directions of single-cell omics,spatial omics,and single-cell spatial omics technology in skeletal muscle development.Among them,single-cell omics can reveal the heterogeneity of skeletal muscle cells,myofiber differentia-tion trajectories in different livestock and poultry(such as cattle,pigs,and Tibetan chickens)through methods like pseudotime analysis and RNA velocity analysis.Furthermore,single-cell omics can identify key transcription factors(e.g.,MYF5,MYOD1)and cell communication pathways(e.g.,FGF7-FG-FR2),and simultaneously clarify the molecular differences in myoblast differentiation timing and cell composition ratio among different breeds.Relying on technologies such as Visium and Seq-Scope,spatial omics realizes the spatial localization of gene expression in pathological models of mice,Atlantic salmon,and broiler chickens.Spatial omics also clarifies the spatial distribution laws of neuromuscular junction region-specific genes and inflammation-fibrosis cascade reactions,and makes up for the defect of losing spatial context in single-cell technology.Although there are limited direct application cases of single-cell spatial omics technology,it has already analyzed the abnormal fate of myoblasts in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy through MERFISH technology.In terms of technology selection,it is necessary to consider research objectives,molecular modalities,and resolution requirements.At the same time,data analysis needs to address challenges such as data sparsity through methods like DCA denoising and RCTD cell type mapping.In addition,this article summarizes 16 muscle development-related databases inclu-ding HCA and PanglaoDB.This review further discusses the potential applications of these three types of technologies in the directional regulation of myoblast fate,precise intervention in the growth cycle,im-provement of microenvironment interactions,and the development of multi-omics genetic breeding mod-els.This paper is providing a more comprehensive and detailed theoretical reference and technical sup-port for basic research on skeletal muscle development and practical applications in the animal husbandry industry.
