Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics 2021;19(3):423-436

doi:10.1016/j.gpb.2021.09.008

Single-cell RNA Sequencing Reveals Thoracolumbar Vertebra Heterogeneity and Rib-genesis in Pigs.

Jianbo LI 1 ; Ligang WANG 2 ; Dawei YU 3 ; Junfeng HAO 4 ; Longchao ZHANG 2 ; Adeniyi C ADEOLA 5 ; Bingyu MAO 6 ; Yun GAO 5 ; Shifang WU 5 ; Chunling ZHU 5 ; Yongqing ZHANG 7 ; Jilong REN 3 ; Changgai MU 1 ; David M IRWIN 6 ; Lixian WANG 2 ; Tang HAI 8 ; Haibing XIE 9 ; Yaping ZHANG 10

Affiliations

+expand

Keywords

Angiogenesis; Osteogenesis; Rib-genesis; Thoracolumbar vertebra transition; scRNA-seq

Country

China

Language

English

Abstract

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.