Abstract
Mechanistic understanding of germ cell formation at a genome-scale level can aid in developing novel therapeutic strategies for infertility. Germ cell formation is a complex process that is regulated by various mechanisms, including epigenetic regulation, germ cell-specific gene transcription, and meiosis. Gonads contain a limited number of germ cells at various stages of differentiation. Hence, genome-scale analysis of germ cells at the single-cell level is challenging. Conventional genome-scale approaches cannot delineate the landscape of genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic diversity or heterogeneity in the differentiating germ cells of gonads. Recent advances in single-cell genomic techniques along with single-cell isolation methods, such as microfluidics and fluorescence-activated cell sorting, have helped elucidate the mechanisms underlying germ cell development and reproductive disorders in humans. In this review, the history of single-cell transcriptomic analysis and their technical advantages over the conventional methods have been discussed. Additionally, recent applications of single-cell transcriptomic analysis for analyzing germ cells have been summarized.
Highlights
The male and female germ cells combine to form the zygote, and this process is called fertilization
Yabuta et al demonstrated that Ifitm3, Prdm1, Dppa3, Sox2, Prdm14, Nanos3, Kit, and Dnd were exclusively expressed in primordial germ cells (PGCs) in at least one of the E6.75–E8.25 stages during early mouse PGC specification
Dmrtc2 and Taf4b expression was upregulated in the late meiotic stage, whereas Taf9b expression was upregulated at the late meiotic stage of PGCs [50]
Summary
The male and female germ cells combine to form the zygote, and this process is called fertilization. The development of fertilization-competent germ cells involves complex regulatory processes, including germ cell-specific cell division (meiosis), re-establishment of sexspecific imprinting genes, and acquisition of sex-specific dimorphic characteristics [1,2,3]. The key biological pathways and molecules involved in germ cell development and fertilization have been identified. The numbers of developing and meiotic germ cells are limited. In the conventional bulk sequencing method, numerous heterogeneous cells are subjected to sequencing. Most studies have adopted the bulk sequencing method, which can capture global or representative gene expression patterns or chromatin conformations of the pooled cells. This method does not account for cell-to-cell heterogeneity. The differentiation of immature germ cells, including progenitor primordial germ cells (prePGCs) and primordial germ cells (PGCs), into mature germ cells involves various steps [1,6]
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