PUBLICATION
Zebrafish neuromesodermal progenitors undergo a critical state transition in vivo
- Authors
- Toh, K., Saunders, D., Verd, B., Steventon, B.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-221025-8
- Date
- 2022
- Source
- iScience 25: 105216 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Keywords
- Bioinformatics, Biological sciences, Developmental biology
- MeSH Terms
- none
- PubMed
- 36274939 Full text @ iScience
Citation
Toh, K., Saunders, D., Verd, B., Steventon, B. (2022) Zebrafish neuromesodermal progenitors undergo a critical state transition in vivo. iScience. 25:105216.
Abstract
The transition state model of cell differentiation proposes that a transient window of gene expression stochasticity precedes entry into a differentiated state. Here, we assess this theoretical model in zebrafish neuromesodermal progenitors (NMps) in vivo during late somitogenesis stages. We observed an increase in gene expression variability at the 24 somite stage (24ss) before their differentiation into spinal cord and paraxial mesoderm. Analysis of a published 18ss scRNA-seq dataset showed that the NMp population is noisier than its derivatives. By building in silico composite gene expression maps from image data, we assigned an 'NM index' to in silico NMps based on the expression of neural and mesodermal markers and demonstrated that cell population heterogeneity peaked at 24ss. Further examination revealed cells with gene expression profiles incongruent with their prospective fate. Taken together, our work supports the transition state model within an endogenous cell fate decision making event.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping