Project description:Here, we use a microfluidics-based approach to prepare single-cell RNA-Seq libraries from over 1,700 primary mouse dendritic cells (DCs) stimulated with three pathogenic components and examine variation between individual cells exposed to the same stimulus and general strategies that multicellular populations use to establish complex dynamic responses. RNA seq libraries from 1775 single cells and population controls with SMARTer
Project description:The EGFR/Ras/ERK signalling pathway is a primary driver of cancer cell proliferation and metastasis in tumours that exhibit high cell-to-cell heterogeneity. While the signalling activity of this pathway is frequently amplified in tumours, it is not understood how the kinetic aspects of its activation in tumours differ from normal cellular signalling. We explored these single-cell kinetic differences using live-cell reporters of ERK signalling in the breast cancer progression series HMT-3522 and found that ERK activity in invasive cells is similar in amplitude to non-malignant cells but is highly dynamic and more disordered, leading to more heterogeneous expression of ERK target genes. We traced this variability to a high degree of amphiregulin-mediated autocrine signalling by invasive cells. Dynamic ERK activity could be transferred from invasive to pre-malignant cells through paracrine signalling in co-culture, and could drive temporal variation in the expression of genes including Fra-1, c-Myc, and Egr1 at the single-cell level. Our findings establish a mechanism for the generation of tumour cell plasticity, in which paracrine signalling in the microenvironment is translated into continually shifting diversity in gene expression profiles, helping drive the phenotypic heterogeneity of tumour cells.
Project description:<p>Gene expression is a biological process regulated at different molecular levels, including chromatin accessibility, transcription, and RNA maturation and transport. In addition, these regulatory mechanisms have strong links with cellular metabolism. Here we present a multi-omics dataset that captures different aspects of this multi-layered process in yeast. We obtained RNA-seq, metabolomics, and H4K12Ac ChIP-seq data for wild-type and mip6delta strains during a heat-shock time course. Mip6 is an RNA-binding protein that contributes to RNA export during environmental stress and is informative of the contribution of post-transcriptional regulation to control cellular adaptations to environmental changes. The experiment was performed in quadruplicate, and the different omics measurements were obtained from the same biological samples, which facilitates the integration and analysis of data using covariance-based methods. We validate our dataset by showing that ChIP-seq, RNA-seq and metabolomics signals recapitulate existing knowledge about the response of ribosomal genes and the contribution of trehalose metabolism to heat stress.</p>
Project description:RNA turnover is a primary source of gene expression variation, in turn promoting cellular adaptation. Mycobacteria leverage reversible mRNA stabilization to endure hostile conditions. Although ribonuclease E is essential for RNA turnover in several species, its role in mycobacterial single cell physiology and functional phenotypic diversification remains unexplored. Here, by integrating live-single-cell and quantitative-mass-spectrometry approaches, we show that ribonuclease E forms dynamic foci, which are associated with cellular homeostasis and single-cell fate, and we discover a versatile molecular interactome. We prove the interaction between ribonuclease E and the nucleoid-associated protein HupB, which is particularly pronounced during drug treatment and intracellularly, where we also observed marked increase of phenotypic diversity. Disruption of ribonuclease E expression affects HupB levels, impairing Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth homeostasis during treatment, intracellular replication and host spread. Our work lays the foundation for rational drug design against Mycobacterium tuberculosis diversification capacity, undermining its cellular balance and fitness landscape.
Project description:The principle of tumor growth is one of the most fundamental aspects in cancer biology and it remains to be superficially understood. Here we developed a set of genetic and mathematical tools for integrative analysis of mouse glioblastoma (GBM) progression. Quantitative temporal imaging of mouse GBM and mathematical modeling suggest that mouse GBM grows exponentially, which led to the discovery that a sustainable exponential growth requires outward migrating brain tumor stem cells (BTSCs). Quantitative single cell tracing of BTSCs in vivo unravels symmetric expansion of BTSCs, asymmetric differentiation, and a non-reversible differentiation process during tumor progression. Mosaic tracing of BTSCs and non-BTSCs reveals cellular dynamic changes and turnover. These experimentally collected parameters were integrated step by step to a quantitative mathematical model of GBM growth, which faithfully predicts tumor cellular architecture, tumor response to chemotherapy and BTSC therapy. Bulk and single cell RNA-Seq reveals distinct molecular hierarchy and molecular heterogeneity in BTSCs, which was confirmed by analyzing human GBM single-cell RNA-Seq results. This study reveals fundamental developmental principles that govern tumor growth, which provides insights into understanding cancer development, tumor heterogeneity and GBM therapy.
Project description:We report scM&T-seq, a method for parallel single-cell genome-wide methylome and transcriptome sequencing, allowing discovery of associations between transcriptional and epigenetic variation. Profiling of 61 mouse embryonic stem cells confirmed known links between DNA methylation and transcription. Notably, the method reveals novel associations between heterogeneous methylation of distal regulatory elements and transcriptional heterogeneity of key pluripotency genes. E14 ES cells were grown in either serum/LIF or 2i culture conditions and separated into single cells. RNA-Seq or Bisulfite-Seq libraries were prepared. This Series includes only the RNA-Seq data. The list of 61 samples that passed QC in both BS-seq and RNA-seq is included in "Supplementary Table 1" of the associated manuscript.
Project description:Directed differentiation of cells in vitro is a powerful approach for dissection of developmental pathways, disease modeling and regenerative medicine, but analysis of such systems are complicated by heterogeneous and asynchronous cellular responses to differentiation-inducing stimuli. To enable deep characterization of heterogeneous cell populations, we developed an efficient digital gene expression profiling protocol that enables surveying of mRNA in thousands of single cells at a time. We then applied this protocol to profile 11,116 cells collected during directed differentiation of human adipose-derived stem/stromal cells. The resulting data reveals the major axes of cell-to-cell variation within and between time points and suggests a link between incomplete adipogenesis in vitro and adipocyte dysfunction in vivo. High-throughput single cell RNA-seq method applied to human adipose tissue-derived stromal/stem cells during differentiation towards an adipogenic fate