Project description:Purpose: Construction of 3D zebrafish spatial transcriptomics data for studying the establishment of AP axis. Methods: We performed serial bulk RNA-seq data of zebrafish embryo at three development points. Using the published spatial transcriptomics data as references, we implemented Palette to infer spatial gene expression from bulk RNA-seq data and constructed 3D embryonic spatial transcriptomics. The constructed 3D transcriptomics data was then projected on zebrafish embryo images with 3D coordinates, establishing a spatial gene expression atlas named Danio rerio Asymmetrical Maps (DreAM). Results: DreAM provides a powerful platform for visualizing gene expression patterns on zebrafish morphology and investigating spatial cell-cell interactions. Conclusions: Our work used DreAM to explore the establishment of anteroposterior (AP) axis, and identified multiple morphogen gradients that played essential roles in determining cell AP positions. Finally, we difined a hox score, and comprehensively demonstrated the spatial collinearity of Hox genes at single-cell resolution during development.
Project description:GATA2 is a pivotal hematopoietic transcription factor required for generation and maintenance of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Due to early embryonic lethality of Gata2 deficiency in mice, its role during adult hematopoiesis is incompletely understood. In zebrafish, mammalian functions of Gata2 are split between two orthologues: Gata2a and Gata2b. Previous studies have shown that Gata2b is prominently expressed in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), whereas Gata2a is mainly expressed in the vasculature. We found that Gata2b deficient zebrafish have a reduction in embryonic definitive HSPC numbers and have impaired myeloid lineage differentiation, but are viable. This allowed us to study the role of Gata2b in adult hematopoiesis. To assess the impact of Gata2b deficiency on the transcriptional profile of HSPCs and differentiated cells, we sorted the entire progenitor and HSPC population including the lymphoid population from kidney marrow (KM) of WT and germline Gata2b deficient zebrafish based on scatter profiles and processed for single-cell RNA sequencing. To enrich the scarce HSC population, we used pooled KM from two WT and Gata2b deficient Tg(CD41:GFP) zebrafish per sample and included all CD41:GFPlow expressing cells present in the kidney marrow pool as these cells were shown to contain transplantable HSCs.
Project description:Dissecting hematopoietic and renal cell heterogeneity in adult zebrafish at single cell resolution using RNA sequencing [Smart-seq]
Project description:The exon junction complex (EJC) is composed of three core proteins Rbm8a, Magoh and Eif4a3 and is thought to play a role in several post-transcriptional processes. In this study we focus on understanding the role of EJC in zebrafish development. We identified transcriptome-wide binding sites of EJC in zebrafish via RNA:protein immunoprecipitation followed by deep sequencing (RIP-Seq). We find that, as in human cells, zebrafish EJC is deposited about 24 nts upstream of exon-exon junctions. We also identify transcripts regulated by Rbm8a and Magoh in zebrafish embryos using whole embryo RNA-seq from rbm8a mutant, magoh mutant and wild-type sibling embryos. This study shows that nonsense mediated mRNA decay is dysregulated in zebrafish EJC mutants.