Skip to Content
Merck
  • The coding and long noncoding single-cell atlas of the developing human fetal striatum.

The coding and long noncoding single-cell atlas of the developing human fetal striatum.

Science (New York, N.Y.) (2021-05-08)
Vittoria Dickinson Bocchi, Paola Conforti, Elena Vezzoli, Dario Besusso, Claudio Cappadona, Tiziana Lischetti, Maura Galimberti, Valeria Ranzani, Raoul J P Bonnal, Marco De Simone, Grazisa Rossetti, Xiaoling He, Kenji Kamimoto, Ira Espuny-Camacho, Andrea Faedo, Federica Gervasoni, Romina Vuono, Samantha A Morris, Jian Chen, Dan Felsenfeld, Giulio Pavesi, Roger A Barker, Massimiliano Pagani, Elena Cattaneo
PMID33958447
ABSTRACT

Deciphering how the human striatum develops is necessary for understanding the diseases that affect this region. To decode the transcriptional modules that regulate this structure during development, we compiled a catalog of 1116 long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) identified de novo and then profiled 96,789 single cells from the early human fetal striatum. We found that D1 and D2 medium spiny neurons (D1- and D2-MSNs) arise from a common progenitor and that lineage commitment is established during the postmitotic transition, across a pre-MSN phase that exhibits a continuous spectrum of fate determinants. We then uncovered cell type-specific gene regulatory networks that we validated through in silico perturbation. Finally, we identified human-specific lincRNAs that contribute to the phylogenetic divergence of this structure in humans. This work delineates the cellular hierarchies governing MSN lineage commitment.