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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.05.25.445704

Single-cell RNA-sequencing reveals thoracolumbar vertebra heterogeneity and rib-genesis in pigs

Li, J.·Wang, L.·Yu, D.·Hao, J.·Zhang, L.·Adeola, A. C.·Mao, B.·Gao, Y.·Wu, S.·Zhu, C.·Zhang, Y.·Ren, J.·Mu, C.·Irwin, D. M.·Hai, T.·Xie, H.·Zhang, Y.-p.
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Abstract

Thoracolumbar vertebra (TLV) and rib primordium (RP) development is a common evolutionary feature across vertebrates although whole-organism analysis of TLV and RP gene expression dynamics has been lacking. Here we investigated the single-cell transcriptomic landscape of thoracic vertebra (TV), lumbar vertebra (LV), and RP cells from a pig embryo at 27 days post-fertilization (dpf) and identified six cell types with distinct gene-expression signatures. In-depth dissection of the gene-expression dynamics and RNA velocity revealed a coupled process of osteogenesis and angiogenesis during TLV and rib development. Further analysis of cell-type-specific and strand-specific expression uncovered the extremely high levels of HOXA10 3-UTR sequence specific to osteoblast of LV cells, which may function as anti-HOXA10-antisense by counteracting the HOXA10-antisense effect to determine TLV transition. Thus, this work provides a valuable resource for understanding embryonic osteogenesis and angiogenesis underlying vertebrate TLV and RP development at the cell-type-specific resolution, which serves as a comprehensive view on the transcriptional profile of animal embryo development.

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Li, J., Wang, L., Yu, D., Hao, J., Zhang, L., Adeola, A. C., Mao, B., Gao, Y., Wu, S., Zhu, C., Zhang, Y., Ren, J., Mu, C., Irwin, D. M., Hai, T., Xie, H., Zhang, Y.-p.. 2021-05-26. Single-cell RNA-sequencing reveals thoracolumbar vertebra heterogeneity and rib-genesis in pigs. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.25.445704

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