ScLamprey · Resolving spinal cord cell type evolution with single cell sequencing
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2020-11-01 → 2025-04-19
- EU contribution
- €224,934
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Resolving spinal cord cell type evolution with single cell sequencing
The emergence of vertebrates was accompanied by a major increase in nervous system complexity, as a sophisticated brain and spinal cord evolved to process enhanced sensory input and direct co-ordinated motor output. Such complexity is achieved by an increase in cell number, a greater diversity of cell types and sophisticated mechanisms to organise them. Is has long been debated whether the “2R” whole genome duplications (WGD), which occurred just before the vertebrate split, contributed to the vertebrate increased complexity. To address this, we focus on the lamprey spinal cord –a representative of the first branching vertebrates – and relate gene duplication events to the emergence of new neural cell types. Bulk RNA sequencing and developmental studies have started to shed light on neural patterning mechanisms in lamprey, but they do not provide cellular resolution in this complex tissue. This project combines traditional molecular methods with cutting-edge single cell mRNA profiling, to explore (1) the cellular diversity of the lamprey spinal cord, (2) the molecular mechanisms that specify those cell types and (3) the evolutionary origins of these mechanisms. The action produced a cellular atlas of the lamprey spinal cord and demonstrated that genes duplicated through whole-genome duplication (WGD) events became incorporated into distinct gene regulatory networks (GRNs), contributing to the evolution of vertebrate complexity.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The emergence of vertebrates was accompanied by a major increase in nervous system complexity, as a sophisticated brain and spinal cord evolved to process enhanced sensory input and direct co-ordinated motor output. Such complexity is achieved by an increase in cell number, a greater diversity of cell types and sophisticated mechanisms to organise them. Is has long been debated whether the “2R” whole genome duplications, which occurred just before the vertebrate split, contributed to the vertebrate increased complexity. To address this, we will focus on the lamprey spinal cord –a representative of the first branching vertebrates – and relate gene duplication events to the emergence of new neural cell types. Bulk RNA sequencing and developmental studies have started to shed light on neural patterning mechanisms in lamprey, but they do not provide cellular resolution in this complex tissue. This proposal combines traditional molecular methods with cutting-edge single cell mRNA profiling, to explore (1) the cellular diversity of the lamprey spinal cord, (2) the molecular mechanisms that specify those cell types and (3) the evolutionary origins of these mechanisms. First, I will identify marker genes that define specific cell types in lamprey embryonic spinal cord. Second, I will characterise each cell type transcriptional profile at single-cell resolution. Third, I will manipulate pattering signals and assesses the effect on gene expression, particularly on 2R paralogs. Finally, I will compare the lamprey spinal cord to that of other chordates, and relate gene duplication to the evolution of new cell types.This project will generate a cellular atlas of the lamprey spinal cord, which will be the framework for future studies, and shed light onto whether the 2R genome duplications supported the evolution of vertebrate complexity.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD · OxfordCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union