Fig. 7

Reactive OPCs upregulate genes involved in differentiation and myelin formation. (A) Experimental pipeline to investigate the transcriptional profile of reactive OPCs with RNAseq. The spinal cord of adult zebrafish is transected. At 7 dpl, ∼0.5 mm of spinal cord tissue (rostral part) is dissected. For sham control fish, a ∼0.5 mm tissue is dissected at the same area of the spinal cord along the rostral to caudal axis of the fish. A calcein AM dye step is used to stain for viable cells. olig2GFP⁺/calcein⁺ OPCs are FAC sorted and processed for the preparation of an RNAseq library. DEGs between lesioned (reactive OPCs) and sham control (non-reactive) groups are analysed. (B) Gene ontology (GO) analysis on DEGs in reactive versus non-reactive OPCs at 7 dpl revealed enrichment for processes involved in development, growth, biogenesis and metabolism. (C) Plot of mean normalized counts over fold-change in reactive versus non-reactive OPCs of DEGs at 7 dpl. Each dot represents a gene. (D) Genes were selected based on their functional annotation to processes involved in myelination.