ABSTRACT: mESCs treated with retinoic acid (RA) and a Shh agonist (SAG) recapitulated ventral hindbrain development and produced a population of neural progenitors with a minor presence of other cell types.
Project description:mESCs treated with retinoic acid (RA) and a Shh agonist (SAG) recapitulated ventral hindbrain development and produced a population of neural progenitors with a minor presence of other cell types.
Project description:We generated single RNA-seq data to measure transcriptional profiles of 14 hESC-derived neuronal populations, representing distinct regions along the dorsoventral and rostrocaudal axes of the developing hindbrain and human spinal cord. These cells are differentiated using a modular protocol that first induces collinear activation of region-specific HOX genes by exposure to FGF8 and Wnt signaling (Lippmann et al, 2015 PMID:25843047). By transitioning to media containing retinoic acid (RA), SB-431542, and LDN-193189, we generate dedicated posterior central nervous system progenitors with unique rostrocaudal identities. Dorsal patterning by BMP4 or ventral patterning by Sonic hedgehog agonists (smoothened agonist (SAG) and Purmorphamine (Pur)), followed by DAPT gave rise to somatosensory or locomotor neuronal cultures. In total we recovered the transcriptomes of 46,959 cells. Analysis verified expression of increasingly caudal HOX paralogs that could be correlated to hindbrain (HOX1-5; H24, H48, and H72), cervical (HOX1-8; H72 and H120), thoracic (HOX1-9; H168), and thoracolumbar (HOX1-11; H216 and H216R) spinal regions. The dataset also includes representation from major cardinal neuron types. Comparison with existing mouse and human datasets revealed the overall similarity between in vitro-derived and in vivo neurons. Moreover, we detect hundreds of transcriptional markers within region-specific neuronal phenotypes, enabling discovery of novel gene expression patterns along the human developmental axes.
Project description:Serotonin (5-HT) neurons, the major components of the raphe nuclei, arise from ventral hindbrain progenitors. Based on the anatomical location and axonal projection, 5-HT neurons are coarsely divided into rostral and caudal groups. Here, we propose a novel strategy to generate hindbrain 5-HT neurons from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), which involves the formation of ventral-type neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and stimulation of the hindbrain 5-HT neural development. A caudalizing agent, retinoid acid (RA), was used to direct the cells into the hindbrain cell fate. Approximately 30-40% of hPSCs successfully developed into 5-HT-expressing neurons using our protocol, with the majority acquiring a caudal rhombomere identity (r5-8). We further modified our monolayer differentiation system to generate 5-HT neuron-enriched hindbrain-like organoids. We have also suggested downstream applications of our 5-HT monolayer and organoid cultures to study neuronal response to gut microbiota. Our methodology could become a powerful tool for future studies related to 5-HT neurotransmission.
Project description:We report gene-expression profiling of different mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) mutant cell lines differentiating to neuronal lineages upon treatment with Retinoic Acid (RA) and Smoothened agonist (SAG). We generated genome-wide expression profiles of embryonic stem cells and neural progenitors at different differentiating time-points for different mutant cell lines and WT control mESCs. We find NKX2.2 and FOXA2 are key components of an intrinsic timer in neural stem cells founded on a negative feedback network that regulates the duration of motor neuron neurogenesis.
Project description:To define the sequence of events that lead to the generation of somatic motor neurons (MNs), we took advantage of ESCs, which can be directed to differentiate into spinal neural progenitors (NPs) in vitro (Gouti et al. 2014). This method relies on the exposure of ESCs, cultured as a monolayer, to a brief pulse of Wnt signalling prior to neural induction. Subsequently, removal of Wnt signalling and exposure to retinoic acid (RA) results in the generation of NPs. Exposure of these NPs to Shh signalling agonist SAG induces the expression of genes expressed in the ventral spinal cord and the induction of MNs.
Project description:Exposure of mouse ESCs to a sequence of extrinsic signals, which recapitulates in vivo development, generates a bipotential neuromesodermal precursor (NMP) that can be directed to differentiate into either spinal cord or paraxial mesodermal tissue. To induce differentiation,mouse ES cells were plated on CellBINDSurface dishes (Corning) precoated with 0.1% gelatin (Sigma) at a density of 5x10^3 cells cm-2 in N2B27 medium. Cells were grown in N2B27 supplemented with 10ng/ml bFGF (R&D) for 3 days (D1-D3) and then were transferred into serum free media without bFGF (D3-D5). To induce ventral hindbrain identity NPCs (NH) 100nM RA (Sigma) and 500nM SAG (Calbiochem) was added from D3-D5. Spinal cord identity (NP) was induced by the addition of 5nM CHIR 99021 (Axon) from D2 to D3 followed by 100nM RA, 500nM SAG from D3-D5. To induce mesodermal differentiation the cells were treated with CHIR99021 from D2-D5.
Project description:Purpose: The goal of this study is to understand the progressive patterning of neurogenesis of the developing zebrafish hindbrain. 16hpf, 24hpf and 44hpf zebrafish hindbrains were used for single-cell RNA-sequencing with the aim to uncover hindbrain development. Methods: 40 microdissected hindbrains per each stage were dissociated at loaded into the 10x Genomics Chromium Platform, and sequenced using Illumina HiSeq 4000. Conclusions: Our study constitute a resource of hindbrain gene expression during development. We have identified transcriptional programs involved in: rhombomere segmental identity, dorso-ventral patterning, boundary and centre progenitor cells and temporal regulation of neurogenesis.
Project description:In studies investigating Sonic hedgehog (Shh) mediated patterning of the ventral neural tube, a process where Shh acts as a morphogen, we have investigated the transcriptional network underlying neural tube specification. Adopting an ES-cell based Shh neuronal specification assay (embryoid body; EBs) and a FLAG-tagged Gli protein (a transcriptional effector of the Shh pathway), we identified a number of direct targets of Gli action using Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP). These results will provide a first survey of the genome level response to this critical signaling input in vertebrate patterning Keywords: ChIP-chip, Gli transcription factors, Gli1, neural specification, mouse