Diversification of multipotential postmitotic mouse retinal ganglion cell precursors into discrete types
- University of California, Berkeley, United States
- Harvard University, United States
- University of California, Los Angeles, United States
Abstract
The genesis of broad neuronal classes from multipotential neural progenitor cells has been extensively studied, but less is known about the diversification of a single neuronal class into multiple types. We used single-cell RNA-seq to study how newly-born (postmitotic) mouse retinal ganglion cell (RGC) precursors diversify into ~45 discrete types. Computational analysis provides evidence that RGC transcriptomic type identity is not specified at mitotic exit, but acquired by gradual, asynchronous restriction of postmitotic multipotential precursors. Some types are not identifiable until a week after they are generated. Immature RGCs may be specified to project ipsilaterally or contralaterally to the rest of the brain before their type identity emerges. Optimal transport inference identifies groups of RGC precursors with largely non-overlapping fates, distinguished by selectively expressed transcription factors that could act as fate determinants. Our study provides a framework for investigating the molecular diversification of discrete types within a neuronal class.
Data availability
Sequencing data has been submitted under GSE185671. Reviewer token : evchicgutpqpnoj.Computational scripts are available at : https://github.com/shekharlab/mouseRGCdev
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Diversification of multipotential postmitotic mouse retinal ganglion cell precursors into discrete typesNCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE19373.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institutes of Health (R37NS029169)
- Joshua R Sanes
National Institutes of Health (R01EY022073)
- Joshua R Sanes
National Institutes of Health (R00EY028625)
- Karthik Shekhar
National Science Foundation (GRP DGE1752814)
- Salwan Butrus
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 experiments were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC) at Harvard University. Mice were maintained in pathogen-free facilities under standard housing conditions with continuous access to food and water. Animals used in this study include both males and females. A meta-analysis (not shown) did not show any systematic sex-related effects in either differentially expressed genes or cell-type proportions.
Copyright
© 2022, Shekhar 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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Diversification of multipotential postmitotic mouse retinal ganglion cell precursors into discrete types
eLife 11:e73809.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.73809
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