美国宾夕法尼亚大学John I. Murray、Junhyong Kim与美国华盛顿大学Robert H. Waterston研究组合作，绘制了单细胞分辨率下秀丽隐杆线虫胚胎发生的谱系分辨分子图谱。这一研究成果2019年9月5日在线发表在《科学》上。

他们分析了86,024个单胚胎细胞的转录组，为其鉴定奠定了分子基础。他们鉴定了502个末端和前末端细胞类型，将大多数单细胞转录组映射到它们在秀丽隐杆线虫保守谱系中的确切位置。使用这些注释，他们发现：1）从原肠胚中期到晚期细胞谱系与其转录组之间的相关性增加，然后随着神经系统和咽部细胞接纳他们的终末命运而急剧下降；2）多系启动有助于几十个谱系分支中的姐妹细胞的分化；3）产生相同解剖细胞类型的大多数不同谱系会聚到同源转录组状态。

研究人员表示，秀丽隐杆线虫是一种细胞很少的动物，但细胞类型却异常多样。

附：英文原文

Title: A lineage-resolved molecular atlas of C. elegans embryogenesis at single-cell resolution

Author: Jonathan S. Packer, Qin Zhu, Chau Huynh, Priya Sivaramakrishnan, Elicia Preston, Hannah Dueck, Derek Stefanik, Kai Tan, Cole Trapnell, Junhyong Kim, Robert H. Waterston, John I. Murray

Issue&Volume: 2019/09/05

Abstract: Caenorhabditis elegans is an animal with few cells, but a striking diversity of cell types. Here, we characterize the molecular basis for their specification by profiling the transcriptomes of 86,024 single embryonic cells. We identify 502 terminal and pre-terminal cell types, mapping most single-cell transcriptomes to their exact position in C. elegans’ invariant lineage. Using these annotations, we find that: 1) the correlation between a cell’s lineage and its transcriptome increases from mid to late gastrulation, then falls dramatically as cells in the nervous system and pharynx adopt their terminal fates; 2) multilineage priming contributes to the differentiation of sister cells at dozens of lineage branches; and 3) most distinct lineages that produce the same anatomical cell type converge to a homogenous transcriptomic state.

DOI: 10.1126/science.aax1971

Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/09/04/science.aax1971