Project description:Cerebral organoids â three-dimensional cultures of human cerebral tissue derived from pluripotent stem cells â have emerged as models of human cortical development. However, the extent to which in vitro organoid systems recapitulate neural progenitor cell proliferation and neuronal differentiation programs observed in vivo remains unclear. Here we use single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to dissect and compare cell composition and progenitor-to-neuron lineage relationships in human cerebral organoids and fetal neocortex. Covariation network analysis using the fetal neocortex data reveals known and novel interactions among genes central to neural progenitor proliferation and neuronal differentiation. In the organoid, we detect diverse progenitors and differentiated cell types of neuronal and mesenchymal lineages, and identify cells that derived from regions resembling the fetal neocortex. We find that these organoid cortical cells use gene expression programs remarkably similar to those of the fetal tissue in order to organize into cerebral cortex-like regions. Our comparison of in vivo and in vitro cortical single cell transcriptomes illuminates the genetic features underlying human cortical development that can be studied in organoid cultures. 734 single-cell transcriptomes from human fetal neocortex or human cerebral organoids from multiple time points were analyzed in this study. All single cell samples were processed on the microfluidic Fluidigm C1 platform and contain 92 external RNA spike-ins. Fetal neocortex data were generated at 12 weeks post conception (chip 1: 81 cells; chip 2: 83 cells) and 13 weeks post conception (62 cells). Cerebral organoid data were generated from dissociated whole organoids derived from induced pluripotent stem cell line 409B2 (iPSC 409B2) at 33 days (40 cells), 35 days (68 cells), 37 days (71 cells), 41 days (74 cells), and 65 days (80 cells) after the start of embryoid body culture. Cerebral organoid data were also generated from microdissected cortical-like regions from H9 embryonic stem cell derived organoids at 53 days (region 1, 48 cells; region 2, 48 cells) or from iPSC 409B2 organoids at 58 days (region 3, 43 cells; region 4, 36 cells).
Project description:Bulk ATAC-seq was performed on human, chimpanzee, bonobo, and macaque stem cell-derived cerebral organoids. ATAC-seq was performed on day 60 (2 months old) and day 120 (4 months old) cerebral organoids.
Project description:We used cerebral organoids generated from wildtype and CHD8 +/- human ES cells to study the effects of CHD8, one of the top ASD risk genes, on early cortical development. CHD8 +/- hESC were generated using the CRISPR/Cas9 system to create a deletion within the helicase domain. Cerebral organoids were generated according to the protocol from Lancaster et al 2013 with minor modifications.
Project description:To explore the mechanism for the role of CTCLduring cortical development, we compaired the transcriptomes of shCtrl and shCTCL organoids by bulk sequencing
Project description:Cerebral organoids – three-dimensional cultures of human cerebral tissue derived from pluripotent stem cells – have emerged as models of human cortical development. However, the extent to which in vitro organoid systems recapitulate neural progenitor cell proliferation and neuronal differentiation programs observed in vivo remains unclear. Here we use single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to dissect and compare cell composition and progenitor-to-neuron lineage relationships in human cerebral organoids and fetal neocortex. Covariation network analysis using the fetal neocortex data reveals known and novel interactions among genes central to neural progenitor proliferation and neuronal differentiation. In the organoid, we detect diverse progenitors and differentiated cell types of neuronal and mesenchymal lineages, and identify cells that derived from regions resembling the fetal neocortex. We find that these organoid cortical cells use gene expression programs remarkably similar to those of the fetal tissue in order to organize into cerebral cortex-like regions. Our comparison of in vivo and in vitro cortical single cell transcriptomes illuminates the genetic features underlying human cortical development that can be studied in organoid cultures.
Project description:Epigenetic regulation is essential for the normal development of human cerebral cortex, and its disruptions would lead to diverse neurodevelopmental disorders. The epigenetic co-repressor CDYL exhibits widespread expression across various cell clusters within the human embryonic cortex, yet its roles in this intricate process have remained elusive. Here, we show that CDYL is critical for cortical neurogenesis, and CDYL deficiency led to an augmentation in the generation of GABAergic neurons instead of cortical progenitors and neurons in the cortical organoid model. Combining analysis of bulk RNA-seq and ChIP seq, we identified NNAT as a significant CDYL target by H3K27me3 modification, crucial for the fate determination of neural stem cells within human cortical organoids, distinctly diverging from the murine cortex at a similar developmental stage. Collectively, our study sheds light on the critical function of CDYL in the maintenance of cortical neural stem cell fate commitment during human corticogenesis through the inhibition of NNAT expression.
Project description:Epigenetic regulation is essential for the normal development of human cerebral cortex, and its disruptions would lead to diverse neurodevelopmental disorders. The epigenetic co-repressor CDYL exhibits widespread expression across various cell clusters within the human embryonic cortex, yet its roles in this intricate process have remained elusive. Here, we show that CDYL is critical for cortical neurogenesis, and CDYL deficiency led to an augmentation in the generation of GABAergic neurons instead of cortical progenitors and neurons in the cortical organoid model. Combining analysis of bulk RNA-seq and ChIP seq, we identified NNAT as a significant CDYL target by H3K27me3 modification, crucial for the fate determination of neural stem cells within human cortical organoids, distinctly diverging from the murine cortex at a similar developmental stage. Collectively, our study sheds light on the critical function of CDYL in the maintenance of cortical neural stem cell fate commitment during human corticogenesis through the inhibition of NNAT expression.
Project description:Chromodomain helicase DNA-binding 8 (CHD8) is one of the most frequently mutated genes causative of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While its phenotypic spectrum often encompasses macrocephaly and hence implicates cortical abnormalities in this form of ASD, the neurodevelopmental impact of human CHD8 haploinsufficiency remains unexplored. Here we combined human cerebral organoids and single cell transcriptomics to define the effect of ASD-linked CHD8 mutations on human cortical development. We found that CHD8 haploinsufficiency causes a major disruption of neurodevelopmental trajectories with an accelerated generation of inhibitory neurons and a delayed production of excitatory neurons alongside the ensuing protraction of the proliferation phase. This imbalance may contribute to the significant enlargement of cerebral organoids in line with the macrocephaly observed in patients with CHD8 mutations. By adopting an isogenic design of patient-specific mutations and mosaic cerebral organoids, we define genotype-phenotype relationships and uncover their cell-autonomous nature. Finally, our results assign different CHD8-dependent molecular defects to particular cell types, pointing to an abnormal and extended program of proliferation and alternative splicing specifically affected in, respectively, the radial glial and immature neuronal compartments. By identifying temporally restricted cell-type specific effects of human CHD8 mutations, our study uncovers developmental alterations as reproducible endophenotypes for neurodevelopmental disease modelling.