德国癌症研究中心(DKFZ)Aurelio A. Teleman和Michael Boutros小组宣布，用单细胞表达相关分析法分析了发育组织的基因表达图谱。相关论文于2019年8月2日发表于国际学术期刊《自然—方法学》上。

为了获得翼盘的基因表达图谱，研究团队采用单细胞RNA测序技术(scRNA-seq)，开发了一种基于基因表达相关性而不是细胞图谱分析scRNA-seq数据的方法。从而能够计算翼盘中所有检测到的基因的表达图谱，并发现具有空间限制表达模式的824个基因。该方法可以用来鉴定具有相似表达模式和功能相关性的基因簇。作为概念的证明，研究人员描述了之前未研究的基因CG5151的特征，并表明它调控Wnt信号。新的方法能够利用scna -seq数据在发育过程中生成未分化组织的表达图谱。

据了解，果蝇翼盘是发现关键信号通路和理解发育过程的基本模型系统。然而，该组织中基因表达的完整图谱仍然缺乏。

附：英文原文


Title: Gene expression atlas of a developing tissue by single cell expression correlation analysis

Author: Josephine Bageritz, Philipp Willnow, Erica Valentini, Svenja Leible, Michael Boutros, Aurelio A. Teleman

Issue&Volume: Volume 16 Issue 8

Abstract: The Drosophila wing disc has been a fundamental model system for the discovery of key signaling pathways and for our understanding of developmental processes. However, a complete map of gene expression in this tissue is lacking. To obtain a gene expression atlas in the wing disc, we employed single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and developed a method for analyzing scRNA-seq data based on gene expression correlations rather than cell mapping. This enables us to compute expression maps for all detected genes in the wing disc and to discover 824 genes with spatially restricted expression patterns. This approach identifies clusters of genes with similar expression patterns and functional relevance. As proof of concept, we characterize the previously unstudied gene CG5151 and show that it regulates Wnt signaling. Our method will enable the leveraging of scRNA-seq data for generating expression atlases of undifferentiated tissues during development.

DOI: 10.1038/s41592-019-0492-x

Source:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-019-0492-x