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Singh A, Tiwari VK. Transcriptional networks of transient cell states during human prefrontal cortex development. Front Mol Neurosci 2023; 16:1126438. [PMID: 37138706 PMCID: PMC10150774 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2023.1126438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2022] [Accepted: 03/15/2023] [Indexed: 05/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The human brain is divided into various anatomical regions that control and coordinate unique functions. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a large brain region that comprises a range of neuronal and non-neuronal cell types, sharing extensive interconnections with subcortical areas, and plays a critical role in cognition and memory. A timely appearance of distinct cell types through embryonic development is crucial for an anatomically perfect and functional brain. Direct tracing of cell fate development in the human brain is not possible, but single-cell transcriptome sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets provide the opportunity to dissect cellular heterogeneity and its molecular regulators. Here, using scRNA-seq data of human PFC from fetal stages, we elucidate distinct transient cell states during PFC development and their underlying gene regulatory circuitry. We further identified that distinct intermediate cell states consist of specific gene regulatory modules essential to reach terminal fate using discrete developmental paths. Moreover, using in silico gene knock-out and over-expression analysis, we validated crucial gene regulatory components during the lineage specification of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells. Our study illustrates unique intermediate states and specific gene interaction networks that warrant further investigation for their functional contribution to typical brain development and discusses how this knowledge can be harvested for therapeutic intervention in challenging neurodevelopmental disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aditi Singh
- Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Science, Queens University, Belfast, United Kingdom
| | - Vijay K. Tiwari
- Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Science, Queens University, Belfast, United Kingdom
- Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C, Denmark
- Danish Institute for Advanced Study (DIAS), Odense M, Denmark
- Department of Clinical Genetics, Odense University Hospital, Odense C, Denmark
- *Correspondence: Vijay K. Tiwari, ;
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Zhu H, Zhao SD, Ray A, Zhang Y, Li X. A comprehensive temporal patterning gene network in Drosophila medulla neuroblasts revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing. Nat Commun 2022; 13:1247. [PMID: 35273186 PMCID: PMC8913700 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28915-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2021] [Accepted: 02/12/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
During development, neural progenitors are temporally patterned to sequentially generate a variety of neural types. In Drosophila neural progenitors called neuroblasts, temporal patterning is regulated by cascades of Temporal Transcription Factors (TTFs). However, known TTFs were mostly identified through candidate approaches and may not be complete. In addition, many fundamental questions remain concerning the TTF cascade initiation, progression, and termination. In this work, we use single-cell RNA sequencing of Drosophila medulla neuroblasts of all ages to identify a list of previously unknown TTFs, and experimentally characterize their roles in temporal patterning and neuronal specification. Our study reveals a comprehensive temporal gene network that patterns medulla neuroblasts from start to end. Furthermore, the speed of the cascade progression is regulated by Lola transcription factors expressed in all medulla neuroblasts. Our comprehensive study of the medulla neuroblast temporal cascade illustrates mechanisms that may be conserved in the temporal patterning of neural progenitors. During development, neural progenitors generate a variety of neural types sequentially. Here the authors examine gene expression patterns in Drosophila neural progenitors at single-cell level, and identify a gene regulatory network controlling the sequential generation of different neural types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hailun Zhu
- Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA
| | - Sihai Dave Zhao
- Department of Statistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.,Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA
| | - Alokananda Ray
- Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA
| | - Yu Zhang
- Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA
| | - Xin Li
- Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
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Tambalo M, Lodato S. Brain organoids: Human 3D models to investigate neuronal circuits assembly, function and dysfunction. Brain Res 2020; 1746:147028. [PMID: 32717276 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2020.147028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2020] [Revised: 07/12/2020] [Accepted: 07/20/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
The human brain is characterized by an extraordinary complexity of neuronal and nonneuronal cell types, wired together into patterned neuronal circuits, which represent the anatomical substrates for the execution of high-order cognitive functions. Brain circuits' development and function is metabolically supported by an intricate network of selectively permeable blood vessels and finely tuned by short-range interactions with immune factors and immune cells. The coordinated cellular and molecular events governing the assembly of this unique and complex structure are at the core of intense investigation and pose legitimate questions about the best modeling strategies. Unceasing advancements in stem cell technologies coupled with recent demonstration of cell self-assembly capacity have enabled the exponential growth of brain organoid protocols in the past decade. This provides a compelling solution to investigate human brain development, a quest often halted by the inaccessibility of brain tissues and the lack of suitable models. We review the current state-of-the-art on the generation of brain organoids, describing the latest progresses in unguided, guided, and assembloids protocols, as well as organoid-on-a-chip strategies and xenograft approaches. High resolution genome wide sequencing technologies, both at the transcriptional and epigenomic level, enable the molecular comparative analysis of multiple brain organoid protocols, as well as to benchmark them against the human fetal brain. Coupling the molecular profiling with increasingly detailed analyses of the electrophysiological properties of several of these systems now allows a more accurate estimation of the protocol of choice for a given biological question. Thus, we summarize strengths and weaknesses of several brain organoid protocols and further speculate on some potential future endeavors to model human brain development, evolution and neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Tambalo
- Humanitas Clinical and Research Center-IRCCS, Via Manzoni 56, 20089 Rozzano, Milan, Italy
| | - S Lodato
- Humanitas Clinical and Research Center-IRCCS, Via Manzoni 56, 20089 Rozzano, Milan, Italy; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Via Rita Levi Montalcini 4, 20090 Pieve Emanuele, Milan, Italy.
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Zhang X, Liu L. Applications of single cell RNA sequencing to research of stem cells. World J Stem Cells 2019; 11:722-728. [PMID: 31692946 PMCID: PMC6828599 DOI: 10.4252/wjsc.v11.i10.722] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2019] [Revised: 08/12/2019] [Accepted: 09/11/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Stem cells (SCs) with their self-renewal and pluripotent differentiation potential, show great promise for therapeutic applications to some refractory diseases such as stroke, Parkinsonism, myocardial infarction, and diabetes. Furthermore, as seed cells in tissue engineering, SCs have been applied widely to tissue and organ regeneration. However, previous studies have shown that SCs are heterogeneous and consist of many cell subpopulations. Owing to this heterogeneity of cell states, gene expression is highly diverse between cells even within a single tissue, making precise identification and analysis of biological properties difficult, which hinders their further research and applications. Therefore, a defined understanding of the heterogeneity is a key to research of SCs. Traditional ensemble-based sequencing approaches, such as microarrays, reflect an average of expression levels across a large population, which overlook unique biological behaviors of individual cells, conceal cell-to-cell variations, and cannot understand the heterogeneity of SCs radically. The development of high throughput single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has provided a new research tool in biology, ranging from identification of novel cell types and exploration of cell markers to the analysis of gene expression and predicating developmental trajectories. scRNA-seq has profoundly changed our understanding of a series of biological phenomena. Currently, it has been used in research of SCs in many fields, particularly for the research of heterogeneity and cell subpopulations in early embryonic development. In this review, we focus on the scRNA-seq technique and its applications to research of SCs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases and National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases and Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
| | - Lei Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases and National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases and Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China.
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Mehmood S, Bilal M, Manzoor R, Iqbal H. Deciphering the adult brain development complexity by single-cell transcriptome analysis—a review. MATERIALS TODAY CHEMISTRY 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.mtchem.2019.04.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
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Kameneva P, Adameyko I. Recent advances in our understanding of central and peripheral nervous system progenitors. Curr Opin Cell Biol 2019; 61:24-30. [PMID: 31369951 DOI: 10.1016/j.ceb.2019.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2019] [Revised: 06/25/2019] [Accepted: 07/02/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Several decades of intense research provided us with a grand framework describing the emergence of neurons in central (CNS) and peripheral (PNS) nervous systems. However, the specifics of molecular events and lineage control leading to a plethora of neuronal subtypes stayed largely unclear. Today, the advances in single cell omics, sample clearing and 3D-microscopy techniques, brain organoids, and synaptic connectivity tracing enabled systematic and unbiased understanding of neuronal diversity, development, circuitry and cell identity control. Novel technological advancements stimulated the transition from conceptual scheme of neuronal differentiation into precise maps of molecular events leading to the diversity of specific neuronal subtypes in relation to their locations and microenvironment. These high-resolution data opened a set of new questions including how transcriptional and epigenetics states control the proportionality of neuronal subpopulations or what are the evolutionary mechanisms of origin of different neuronal subtypes. In this review, we outline the most recent advancements in our understanding of how the neuronal diversity is generated in CNS and PNS and briefly address the challenges and questions arising in the field of neurogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Polina Kameneva
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Igor Adameyko
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Molecular Neurosciences, Center for Brain Research, Medical University Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
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Abstract
Brain organoids are self-assembled three-dimensional aggregates generated from pluripotent stem cells with cell types and cytoarchitectures that resemble the embryonic human brain. As such, they have emerged as novel model systems that can be used to investigate human brain development and disorders. Although brain organoids mimic many key features of early human brain development at molecular, cellular, structural and functional levels, some aspects of brain development, such as the formation of distinct cortical neuronal layers, gyrification, and the establishment of complex neuronal circuitry, are not fully recapitulated. Here, we summarize recent advances in the development of brain organoid methodologies and discuss their applications in disease modeling. In addition, we compare current organoid systems to the embryonic human brain, highlighting features that currently can and cannot be recapitulated, and discuss perspectives for advancing current brain organoid technologies to expand their applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuyu Qian
- Department of Neuroscience and Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
| | - Hongjun Song
- Department of Neuroscience and Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- The Epigenetics Institute, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Guo-Li Ming
- Department of Neuroscience and Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School for Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
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Oberst P, Agirman G, Jabaudon D. Principles of progenitor temporal patterning in the developing invertebrate and vertebrate nervous system. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2019; 56:185-193. [PMID: 30999235 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2019.03.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2018] [Revised: 02/27/2019] [Accepted: 03/01/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
During the development of the central nervous system, progenitors successively generate distinct types of neurons which assemble into the circuits that underlie our ability to interact with the environment. Spatial and temporal patterning mechanisms are partially evolutionarily conserved processes that allow generation of neuronal diversity from a limited set of progenitors. Here, we review examples of temporal patterning in neuronal progenitors in the Drosophila ventral nerve cord and in the mammalian cerebral cortex. We discuss cell-autonomous mechanisms and environmental influences on the temporal transitions of neuronal progenitors. Identifying the principles controlling the temporal specification of progenitors across species, as highlighted here, may help understand the evolutionary constraints over brain circuit design and function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Polina Oberst
- Department of Basic Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Gulistan Agirman
- Department of Basic Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland; GIGA-Neurosciences, University of Liège, C.H.U. Sart-Tilman, Liège, Belgium
| | - Denis Jabaudon
- Department of Basic Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland; Department of Neurology, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland.
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Quesnel-Vallières M, Weatheritt RJ, Cordes SP, Blencowe BJ. Autism spectrum disorder: insights into convergent mechanisms from transcriptomics. Nat Rev Genet 2018; 20:51-63. [DOI: 10.1038/s41576-018-0066-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 82] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
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