A stressed barrier left behind: stochastic podocyte ablation triggers secondary injury

Consensus draft of the native mouse podocyte-ome

The podocyte is a key cell in maintaining renal filtration barrier integrity. Several recent studies have analyzed the entity of genome-coded molecules in the podocyte at deep resolution. This avenue of "podocyte-ome" research was enabled by a variety of techniques, including single-cell transcriptomics, FACS-sorting with and without genetically encoded markers, and deep acquisition of proteomics. However, data across various omics studies are not well-integrated with each other. Here, we aim to establish a common, simplified knowledgebase for the mouse "podocyte-ome" by integrating bulk RNA sequencing and bulk proteomics of sorted podocytes and single cell transcriptomics. Three datasets of each omics type from different laboratories, respectively, were integrated, visualized and bioinformatically analyzed. The procedure sheds light on conserved processes of podocytes, but also on limitations and specific features of the used technologies. High expression of glycan GPI anchor synthesis and turnover, and retinol metabolism was identified as a relatively understudied feature of podocytes, while there are both podocyte-enriched and podocyte-depleted actin binding molecules. We compiled aggregated data in an application that illustrates the features of the dataset and allows for exploratory analyses through individual gene query of podocyte identity in absolute and relative quantification towards other glomerular cell types, keywords, GO-terms and gene set enrichments. This consensus draft is a first step towards common molecular omics knowledge of kidney cells.