Project description:The organ of Corti, located in the floor of the scala media of the cochlea, acts as the primary sensory transducer of sound in mammals. This remarkable structure comprises a highly diverse cellular mosaic that includes two unique types of mechanosensory hair cells and an undefined number of associated supporting cell types. All of these cells are believed to arise from a developmental equivalence group referred to as the prosensory domain that is similarly thought to arise from a proneurosensory population that develops in the anterior-ventral region of the otocyst. The results of both classical embryologic manipulations and modern molecular genetic experiments suggest that otocyst precursor cells proceed through several rounds of lineage restriction that progressively specify subsets of cells as prosensory cells and ultimately as either hair cells or supporting cells. However, the relatively small sizes of the otocyst and inner ear have hindered efforts to determine the full diversity of cell types within the mature cochlea and to identify the transitional cell types that exist during development. The recent development of droplet-based methods for isolation and subsequent transcriptional profiling of individual cells provides a potential method to address both of these challenges. Therefore, we dissected, dissociated and then captured over 27,000 epithelial cells from the developing cochlear duct at specific time points between E14 and P7.
Project description:Otic Mesenchyme Cells (OMCs) are the numerous cell type during cochlear development. We used single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to analyze the diversity of OMCs during cochlear development
Project description:Juvenile and mature mouse cochleae contain various low-abundant, vulnerable sensory epithelial cells embedded in the calcified temporal bone, making it challenging to profile the dynamic transcriptome changes of these cells during maturation at the single-cell level. Here we performed the 10X Genomics single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of mouse cochleae at postnatal days 14 (P14) and 28. We attained the transcriptomes of multiple cell types, including hair cells, supporting cells, spiral ganglia, stria fibrocytes, and immune cells. Our hair cell datasets are consistent with published transcripts from bulk RNA seq and scRNA-seq. We also mapped known deafness genes to corresponding cochlear cell types. Importantly, pseudotime trajectory analysis revealed that inner hair cells peak their maturation at P14 while outer hair cells continue to develop until P28. We further identified and confirmed a long noncoding RNA gene Miat expressed during maturation in cochlear hair cells and spiral ganglia neurons. Our transcriptomes of juvenile and mature mouse cochlear cells provided the sequel to those previously published at late embryonic and early postnatal ages and will be valuable resources to investigate cochlear maturation at single-cell resolution.
Project description:Mammalian hearing requires the development of the organ of Corti, a sensory epithelium comprising unique cell types. The limited number of each of these cell types, combined with their close proximity, has prevented characterization of individual cell types and/or their developmental progression. To examine cochlear development more closely, we transcriptionally profile approximately 30,000 isolated mouse cochlear cells collected at four developmental time points. Here we report on the analysis of those cells including the identification of both known and unknown cell types. Trajectory analysis for OHCs indicates four phases of gene expression while fate mapping of progenitor cells suggests that OHCs and their surrounding supporting cells arise from a distinct (lateral) progenitor pool. Tgfβr1 is identified as being expressed in lateral progenitor cells and a Tgfβr1 antagonist inhibits OHC development. These results provide insights regarding cochlear development and demonstrate the potential value and application of this data set.
Project description:Characterizing adult cochlear supporting cell transcriptional diversity using scRNA-Seq Hearing loss is a significant disability that impacts 432 million people worldwide. A significant proportion of these individuals are dissatisfied with or do not have access to available treatment options which include hearing aids and cochlear implants. An alternative approach to restore hearing would be to regenerate lost cells, including hair cells in the adult cochlea. Such therapy would require restoration of the organ of Corti’s complex architecture, necessitating regeneration of both mature hair cells and supporting cells. We characterize the first single-cell adult cochlear supporting cell transcriptomes with the goals of: (1) demonstrating their transcriptional distinctiveness from perinatal cochlear supporting cells, (2) providing a metric for future attempts at regenerating mature cochlear supporting cells by identifying both cell type-specific and regional-specific expression, and (3) identify cell cycle gene expression present in adult supporting cells at the single cell level which may establish a basis for targeting cell cycle regulation pathways to force these cells out of quiescence.
Project description:The cochlear nucleus is the first central pathway involved in the processing of peripheral auditory activity. It is heterogeneous in neuronal populations and physiologic responses and is organized in three major subdivisions: the anterior ventral cochlear nucleus (AVCN), the posterior ventral cochlear nucleus (PVCN) and the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN). Although each region demonstrates multiple cell types and functions, there are predominant populations of neurons in each region that underlie the principal role each subdivision plays in auditory processing. Little is known of the underlying genetic contribution to these properties. This study sought to identify genes expressed in the subdivisions of the cochlear nucleus that may account for the anatomical and physiological characteristics of each subdivision. These data provide a genetic basis for understanding normal auditory processing in the cochlear nucleus and a template for investigating changes that may occur with hearing loss, the generation and percept of tinnitus, and central processing disorders. Keywords: normal, comparative Brown Norway rats (n=40, female, 45days) were anesthetized and decapitated. Brains were rapidly removed and the subdivisions of the cochlear nucleus (AVCN, PVCN and DCN) dissected on dry ice. Total RNA was extracted and tested for concentration and purity by spectrophotometry and integrity by gel electrophoresis. SAGE was performed using the NlaIII enzyme and Invitrogen SAGE kit. Concatemers were commercially sequenced and imported into eSAGE (Margulies and Innis, 2000) for tag extraction and frequency.