Abstract

This study provides transcriptomic characterization of the cells of the crista ampullaris, sensory structures at the base of the semicircular canals that are critical for vestibular function. We performed single cell RNA-seq on ampullae microdissected from E16, E18, P3 and P7 mice. Cluster analysis identified the hair cells, support cells and glia of the crista as well as dark cells and other nonsensory epithelial cells of the ampulla, mesenchymal cells, vascular cells, macrophages and melanocytes. Cluster-specific expression of genes predicted their spatially restricted domains of gene expression in the crista and ampulla. Analysis of cellular proportions across developmental time showed dynamics in cellular composition. The new cell types revealed by single cell RNA-seq could be important for understanding crista function and the markers identified in this study will enable the examination of their dynamics during development and disease.

Data availability

All RNA-Seq data has been ave been deposited in NCBI's Gene Expression Omnibus (Edgar et al., 2002) and are accessible through GEO Series accession number# GSE168901.

The following data sets were generated
The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Brent A Wilkerson

    Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Heather L Zebroski

    Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Connor R Finkbeiner

    Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Alex D Chitsazan

    Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Kylie E Beach

    Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Nilasha Sen

    Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Renee C Zhang

    Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Olivia Bermingham-McDonogh

    Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
    For correspondence
    oliviab@uw.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2559-4218

Funding

National Institutes of Health (R01DC017126)

  • Olivia Bermingham-McDonogh

National Institutes of Health (R21DC018094)

  • Brent A Wilkerson

National Institutes of Health (F32DC016480)

  • Brent A Wilkerson

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All animal work was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use committee under protocol number 3123-01 and conforms to the recommendations of the NIH for animal care and use. Every effort was made to minimize any distress to the mice. Euthanasia of mice was in accordance with the AVMA guidelines.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Tanya T Whitfield, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom

Version history

  1. Received: June 16, 2020
  2. Accepted: May 17, 2021
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: May 18, 2021 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: June 9, 2021 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2021, Wilkerson et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Brent A Wilkerson
  2. Heather L Zebroski
  3. Connor R Finkbeiner
  4. Alex D Chitsazan
  5. Kylie E Beach
  6. Nilasha Sen
  7. Renee C Zhang
  8. Olivia Bermingham-McDonogh
(2021)
Novel cell types and developmental lineages revealed by single-cell RNA-seq analysis of the mouse crista ampullaris
eLife 10:e60108.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.60108

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