MRNA profiling reveals significant transcriptional differences between a multipotent progenitor and its differentiated sister.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The two Caenorhabditis elegans somatic gonadal precursors (SGPs) are multipotent progenitors that generate all somatic tissues of the adult reproductive system. The sister cells of the SGPs are two head mesodermal cells (hmcs); one hmc dies by programmed cell death and the other terminally differentiates. Thus, a single cell division gives rise to one multipotent progenitor and one differentiated cell with identical lineage histories. We compared the transcriptomes of SGPs and hmcs in order to learn the determinants of multipotency and differentiation in this lineage.

Results

We generated a strain that expressed fluorescent markers specifically in SGPs (ehn-3A::tdTomato) and hmcs (bgal-1::GFP). We dissociated cells from animals after the SGP/hmc cell division, but

SUBMITTER: Mathies LD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6540470 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature