Revealing the Critical Regulators of Cell Identity in the Mouse Cell Atlas

Shengbao Suo,Qian Zhu,Assieh Saadatpour,Lijiang Fei,Guoji Guo,Guo-Cheng Yuan

doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2018.10.045

Shengbao Suo, Qian Zhu + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2018.10.045

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Journal: Cell Reports	Publication Date: Nov 1, 2018
Citations: 197	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Zhejiang University, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Abstract

SUMMARYRecent progress in single-cell technologies has enabled the identification of all major cell types in mouse. However, for most cell types, the regulatory mechanism underlying their identity remains poorly understood. By computational analysis of the recently published mouse cell atlas data, we have identified 202 regulons whose activities are highly variable across different cell types, and more importantly, predicted a small set of essential regulators for each major cell type in mouse. Systematic validation by automated literature and data mining provides strong additional support for our predictions. Thus, these predictions serve as a valuable resource that would be useful for the broad biological community. Finally, we have built a user-friendly, interactive web portal to enable users to navigate this mouse cell network atlas.

Highlights

A multi-cellular organism contains diverse cell types; each has its own functions and morphology
How do cells maintain their identity? While it is clear the maintenance of cell identity involves the coordinated action of many regulators, transcription factors (TFs) have been long recognized to play a central role
With the increasing diversity of gene expression programs being identified through single-cell analysis, an urgent need is to understand how these programs are established during development, and to identify the key regulators responsible for such processes

Summary

Introduction

A multi-cellular organism contains diverse cell types; each has its own functions and morphology. A fundamental goal in biology is to characterize the entire cell-type atlas in human and model organisms. While it is clear the maintenance of cell identity involves the coordinated action of many regulators, transcription factors (TFs) have been long recognized to play a central role. With the increasing diversity of gene expression programs being identified through single-cell analysis, an urgent need is to understand how these programs are established during development, and to identify the key regulators responsible for such processes

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