Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, U.K.
Biochem Soc Trans. 2022 Oct 31;50(5):1237-1246. doi: 10.1042/BST20210825.
Single-cell transcriptomics has revolutionised biology allowing the quantification of gene expression in individual cells. Since each single cell contains cell type specific mRNAs, these techniques enable the classification of cell identities. Therefore, single cell methods have been used to explore the repertoire of cell types (the single cell atlas) of different organisms, including freshwater planarians. Nowadays, planarians are one of the most prominent animal models in single cell biology. They have been studied at the single cell level for over a decade using most of the available single cell methodological approaches. These include plate-based methods, such as qPCR, nanodroplet methods and in situ barcoding methods. Because of these studies, we now have a very good picture of planarian cell types and their differentiation trajectories. Planarian regenerative properties and other characteristics, such as their developmental plasticity and their capacity to reproduce asexually, ensure that another decade of single cell biology in planarians is yet to come. Here, we review these characteristics, the new biological insights that have been obtained by single-cell transcriptomics and outline the perspectives for the future.
单细胞转录组学改变了生物学,使人们能够在单个细胞中定量检测基因表达。由于每个单细胞都包含细胞类型特异性的 mRNA,因此这些技术可以实现细胞身份的分类。因此,单细胞方法已被用于探索不同生物体(包括淡水涡虫)的细胞类型(单细胞图谱)的全貌。如今,涡虫是单细胞生物学中最突出的动物模型之一。十多年来,它们已经使用了大多数可用的单细胞方法进行了研究,这些方法包括基于平板的方法,如 qPCR、纳升液滴方法和原位条形码方法。由于这些研究,我们现在对涡虫的细胞类型及其分化轨迹有了非常清晰的认识。涡虫的再生特性和其他特性,如发育可塑性和无性繁殖能力,确保了未来十年还将有更多的单细胞生物学研究。在这里,我们将回顾这些特性,讨论单细胞转录组学所获得的新生物学见解,并概述未来的发展方向。
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