Project description:Single cell sequencing technologies are powerful tools for the dissection of large regulatory networks and their role in directing developmental trajectories. The goal of this project is to profile the transcriptional landscape of germ cell development in the mouse male embryo at single cell resolution, and to examine the dynamic regulation of the molecular networks directing epigenetic reprogramming in these cells.
Project description:Female primordial germ cell differentiation undergoes sex determination and meiosis initiation asynchronously. Here we investigate the transcriptional profiles of 20519 single cells collected from E12.5, E14.5 and E16.5 mouse fetal ovaries. Clustering analysis identifies ten clusters and defines dozens of corresponding marker genes and provides a global view of cellular differentiation from undifferentiated primordial germ cells towards meiotic oocytes. We explore the dynamics of gene expression within the differentiation trajectory with special focus on the mechanisms for meiotic initiation.
Project description:The male germ cell differentiation is a subtle and complex regulation processes, currently its regulatory mechanism is not fully understood. In our experiment, we performed the first comprehensive genome wide analyses of the crucial genes in three kinds of crucial cells (ESCs, PGCs and SSCs) associated with the male germ cells differentiation. We identified thousands of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in this process andwe choosed 173 candidate genes involved in the differentiation and metabolic processes, like GAL9, AMH, PLK1, PSMD7 and so on. Further exploration found that the candidate genes express patterns were the same between in vitro induction experiments and transcriptome results. Our results clues to the mechanistic basis of male germ cell differentiation and provides an important reference for future studies. Gene expression in chicken germ stem cells was measured at different stages of development. Three independent experiments were performed at each stage (ESCs, PGCs and SSCs).