Department of Craniofacial Biology, University of Colorado, Denver, United States.
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Denver, United States.
Elife. 2021 Aug 16;10:e66078. doi: 10.7554/eLife.66078.
The neural crest is a migratory population of stem-like cells that contribute to multiple traits including the bones of the skull, peripheral nervous system, and pigment. How neural crest cells differentiate into diverse cell types is a fundamental question in the study of vertebrate biology. Here, we use single-cell RNA sequencing to characterize transcriptional changes associated with neural crest cell development in the zebrafish trunk during the early stages of migration. We show that neural crest cells are transcriptionally diverse and identify pre-migratory populations already expressing genes associated with differentiated derivatives, specifically in the xanthophore lineage. Further, we identify a population of Rohon-Beard neurons in the data. The data presented identify novel genetic markers for multiple trunk neural crest cell populations and Rohon-Beard neurons providing insight into previously uncharacterized genes critical for vertebrate development.
神经嵴是一群具有干细胞特性的迁移细胞，对多种特征都有贡献，包括颅骨、周围神经系统和色素。神经嵴细胞如何分化为不同的细胞类型是脊椎动物生物学研究中的一个基本问题。在这里，我们使用单细胞 RNA 测序来描述斑马鱼躯干在早期迁移过程中神经嵴细胞发育相关的转录变化。我们表明，神经嵴细胞在转录上是多样化的，并鉴定出已经表达与分化衍生物相关基因的前迁移群体，特别是在黄色素谱系中。此外，我们在数据中鉴定出罗霍恩-比尔德神经元的一个群体。所呈现的数据为多个躯干神经嵴细胞群体和罗霍恩-比尔德神经元提供了新的遗传标记，为以前未被表征的对脊椎动物发育至关重要的基因提供了深入了解。
