Mapping a mammalian adult adrenal gland hierarchy across species by microwell-seq.

Recently, single-cell RNA-seq technologies have been rapidly updated, leading to a revolution in biology. We previously developed Microwell-seq, a cost-effective and high-throughput single cell RNA sequencing(scRNA-seq) method with a very simple device. Most cDNA libraries are sequenced using an expensive Illumina platform. Here, we present the first report showing combined Microwell-seq and BGI MGISEQ2000, a less expensive sequencing platform, to profile the whole transcriptome of 11,883 individual mouse adult adrenal gland cells and identify 18 transcriptionally distinct clusters. Moreover, we performed a single-cell comparative analysis of human and mouse adult adrenal glands to reveal the conserved genetic networks in these mammalian systems. These results provide new insights into the sophisticated adrenal gland hierarchy and provide a benchmark, low-cost strategy for high-throughput single-cell RNA study.