Acoel single-cell atlas reveals expression dynamics and heterogeneity of adult pluripotent stem cells

Ryan E. Hulett, Julian O. Kimura, D. Marcela Bolaños, Yi-Jyun Luo, Carlos Rivera-López, Lorenzo Ricci and Mansi Srivastava ()
Additional contact information
Ryan E. Hulett: Harvard University
Julian O. Kimura: Harvard University
D. Marcela Bolaños: Harvard University
Yi-Jyun Luo: Harvard University
Carlos Rivera-López: Harvard University
Lorenzo Ricci: Harvard University
Mansi Srivastava: Harvard University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Adult pluripotent stem cell (aPSC) populations underlie whole-body regeneration in many distantly-related animal lineages, but how the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms compare across species is unknown. Here, we apply single-cell RNA sequencing to profile transcriptional cell states of the acoel worm Hofstenia miamia during postembryonic development and regeneration. We identify cell types shared across stages and their associated gene expression dynamics during regeneration. Functional studies confirm that the aPSCs, also known as neoblasts, are the source of differentiated cells and reveal transcription factors needed for differentiation. Subclustering of neoblasts recovers transcriptionally distinct subpopulations, the majority of which are likely specialized to differentiated lineages. One neoblast subset, showing enriched expression of the histone variant H3.3, appears to lack specialization. Altogether, the cell states identified in this study facilitate comparisons to other species and enable future studies of stem cell fate potentials.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38016-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-38016-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38016-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().