의생명시스템학부

제목: Niche-specific gene expression using PICseq analysis during mouse embryonic development

내용:

Cells continuously interact with each other to provide signaling cues to the neighboring cells during development. Cell-cell contact is a fundamental way of communication between two interacting cells. However, our understanding of how cell-cell contact administers the lineage specification still remains poor. To understand the role of cell-cell contact for embryogenesis, we used RNA sequencing from physically interacting cells (PICseq) as well as single cells (scRNAseq) from developing mouse embryos between embryonic day (E) 7.5 and E9.5. We identified the genes highly expressed when two types of cells interact with each other but not in the individual cell types. Intriguingly, a cell type showed gene expression profiles specific to the contacting cell types. For instance, Nkx2-1 is expressed in neural progenitor (NP) cells contacting with definitive endoderm (DE) but not with others in mouse embryo at around e8.5. A machine learning approach was designed to predict neighboring cell types for scRNAseq. Our results may explain the role of cell-contact for proper developmental processes.