Abstract
ABSTRACTSoon after fertilization of egg and sperm, plant genomes become transcriptionally activated and drive a series of coordinated cell divisions to form the basic body plan during embryogenesis. Early embryonic cells rapidly diversify from each other, and investigation of the corresponding gene expression dynamics can help elucidate underlying cellular differentiation programs. However, current plant embryonic transcriptome datasets either lack cell-specific information or have RNA contamination from surrounding non-embryonic tissues. We have coupled fluorescence-activated nuclei sorting together with single-nucleus mRNA-sequencing to construct a gene expression atlas of Arabidopsis thaliana early embryos at single-cell resolution. In addition to characterizing cell-specific transcriptomes, we found evidence that distinct epigenetic and transcriptional regulatory mechanisms operate across emerging embryonic cell types. These datasets and analyses, as well as the approach we devised, are expected to facilitate the discovery of molecular mechanisms underlying pattern formation in plant embryos.This article has an associated ‘The people behind the papers’ interview.
Highlights
Metazoans and land plants establish their body plans during embryogenesis (Dresselhaus and Jürgens, 2021; Gerri et al, 2020), and corresponding gene regulatory mechanisms have evolved independently in these two major eukaryotic lineages to help generate the immense morphological diversity observed in nature (Bai, 2015; Clark et al, 2006; Meyerowitz, 2002)
Our results build upon foundational research examining the divergence of gene expression between the first two sporophytic cell lineages (Belmonte et al, 2013; Chen et al, 2021; Zhou et al, 2020) to help characterize how distinct gene expression programs, and corresponding cell types, are generated during early embryogenesis
Because evolutionary trajectories and transcripts encoding epigenetic factors or transcriptional regulators varied across early embryonic cell types, we surveyed these aspects to gain insights into how distinct gene expression programs are established in early embryos
Summary
Metazoans and land plants establish their body plans during embryogenesis (Dresselhaus and Jürgens, 2021; Gerri et al, 2020), and corresponding gene regulatory mechanisms have evolved independently in these two major eukaryotic lineages to help generate the immense morphological diversity observed in nature (Bai, 2015; Clark et al, 2006; Meyerowitz, 2002). Transcriptional activation of the zygotic genome soon after fertilization is necessary for zygote elongation and initial divisions in Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) Genes are expressed from the zygotic genome during initial stages of embryo development, and the diversification of gene expression programs across plant embryonic cell types contributes to the formation of the basic body plan. Characterizing how gene expression programs are established in individual cell types of early embryos is crucial to understand the molecular basis of pattern formation in plant embryos, and more broadly the general and unique principles of embryonic patterning in multicellular organisms
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