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Updated: Jun 7, 2025
Single-cell Profiling of Developing and Mature Retinal Neurons
Published on: April 19, 2012
Comparative single-cell transcriptomic analysis reveals putative differentiation drivers and potential origin of
Xin Zeng1,2, Fuki Gyoja3, Yang Cui1,2
1Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8563, Japan.
Abstract:
Despite known single-cell expression profiles in vertebrate retinas, understanding of their developmental and evolutionary expression patterns among homologous cell classes remains limited. We examined and compared approximately 240 000 retinal cells from four species and found significant similarities among homologous cell classes, indicating inherent regulatory patterns. To understand these shared patterns, we constructed gene regulatory networks for each developmental stage for three of these species. We identified 690 regulons governed by 530 regulators across three species, along with 10 common cell class-specific regulators and 16 highly preserved regulons. RNA velocity analysis pinpointed conserved putative driver genes and regulators to retinal cell differentiation in both mouse and zebrafish. Investigation of the origins of retinal cells by examining conserved expression patterns between vertebrate retinal cells and invertebrate Ciona intestinalis photoreceptor-related cells implied functional similarities in light transduction mechanisms. Our findings offer insights into the evolutionarily conserved regulatory frameworks and differentiation drivers of vertebrate retinal cells.
