Genes and Human Disease Research Program, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, United States.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States.
Elife. 2020 Apr 2;9:e52613. doi: 10.7554/eLife.52613.
Proper function and repair of the digestive system are vital to most animals. Deciphering the mechanisms involved in these processes requires an atlas of gene expression and cell types. Here, we applied laser-capture microdissection (LCM) and RNA-seq to characterize the intestinal transcriptome of , a planarian flatworm that can regenerate all organs, including the gut. We identified hundreds of genes with intestinal expression undetected by previous approaches. Systematic analyses revealed extensive conservation of digestive physiology and cell types with other animals, including humans. Furthermore, spatial LCM enabled us to uncover previously unappreciated regionalization of gene expression in the planarian intestine along the medio-lateral axis, especially among intestinal goblet cells. Finally, we identified two intestine-enriched transcription factors that specifically regulate regeneration (hedgehog signaling effector ) or maintenance () of goblet cells. Altogether, this work provides resources for further investigation of mechanisms involved in gastrointestinal function, repair and regeneration.
消化系统的正常功能和修复对于大多数动物至关重要。要破译这些过程中涉及的机制，需要一个基因表达和细胞类型图谱。在这里，我们应用激光捕获显微切割（LCM）和 RNA-seq 来描述能够再生所有器官（包括肠道）的扁形动物涡虫的肠道转录组。我们鉴定了数百个以前方法无法检测到的具有肠道表达的基因。系统分析揭示了与其他动物（包括人类）的消化生理学和细胞类型的广泛保守性。此外，空间 LCM 使我们能够揭示扁形动物肠道沿中-侧轴的以前未被认识到的基因表达区域化，特别是在肠道杯状细胞中。最后，我们鉴定了两个肠特异性转录因子，它们分别特异性调节杯状细胞的再生（Hedgehog 信号效应物）或维持（）。总的来说，这项工作为进一步研究胃肠道功能、修复和再生的机制提供了资源。
