中国科学院分子植物科学卓越创新中心王佳伟团队宣布他们的最新研究提出了统一的维管植物细胞图谱揭示了细胞类型的基础基因，加速了基因的发现。该项研究成果发表在2025年8月18日出版的《细胞》上。

为了解决这个问题，课题组人员建立了一个统一的单细胞地图集，从六个维管植物物种跨越主要进化群体的茎尖。这种跨物种的抗性使他们能够识别出一组与表皮、木质部和韧皮部等关键组织相关的核心细胞型基础基因，从而更准确地简化了基因发现。其中，该团队发现了一个以前未被认识的X8结构域蛋白和JULGI样蛋白作为韧皮部发育调节因子的分支。研究团队还在蕨类植物和裸子植物中发现了传统组织学方法无法区分的伴侣细胞样细胞，并开发了一种用于维管植物细胞类型的自动细胞类型注释工具，扩大了他们方法的实用性。他们的发现建立了一个高分辨率的框架，用于识别植物细胞类型的关键调节因子，并为研究植物细胞类型的进化设置了一个创新的范例。

研究人员表示，随着基因筛选达到饱和，植物基因发现的步伐已经放缓。

附：英文原文

Title: A unified cell atlas of vascular plants reveals cell-type foundational genes and accelerates gene discovery

Author: Hao-Chen Xue, Zhou-Geng Xu, Yu-Jie Liu, Long Wang, Xin Ming, Ze-Yu Wu, Heng Lian, Yu-Wei Han, Jie Xu, Zheng-Da Zhang, Qiao-Lin Shao, Ke Liu, Fu-Xiang Wang, Ai-Hua Wang, Jian Zhao, Jinfeng Zhang, Jianghua Chen, Yanfei Mao, Jia-Wei Wang

Issue&Volume: 2025-08-18

Abstract: The pace of gene discovery in plants has slowed as forward genetic screens reach saturation. To address this, we built a unified single-cell atlas of shoot apices from six vascular plant species spanning major evolutionary groups. This cross-species resource allowed us to identify a core set of cell-type foundational genes linked to key tissues such as the epidermis, xylem, and phloem, streamlining gene discovery with greater accuracy. Among these, we uncovered a previously unrecognized clade of X8 domain proteins and JULGI-LIKE as regulators of phloem development. We also identified companion-cell-like cells in ferns and gymnosperms that cannot be distinguished by conventional histological methods and developed an automated cell-type annotation tool for vascular plant cell types, expanding the utility of our approach. Our findings establish a high-resolution framework for identifying key regulators of plant cell types and set an innovative paradigm for studying plant cell-type evolution.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.07.036

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(25)00858-X