Du Zhuo's research group has made new progress in the study of the timing and air conditioning control rules established by the embryonic development schema

The construction of living organisms begins with embryonic development, and its regulation is highly dynamic and complex
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Development schema (developmental patterning) how to build, how each fertilized egg cell that is produced to obtain a specific destiny and build a fully functional form tissues and organs, is the core issue of embryonic development

 

Compared with a clear and comprehensive cell map, the internal molecular dynamic regulation process still needs to be deepened.
An entry point is to clarify the gene expression and regulation of each cell at all times
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At present, it is possible to determine the transcriptome of a single cell, but it is still very difficult to accurately correspond the transcriptome to the cell identity and achieve single-cell annotation accuracy

 

Using this map, this study first analyzed the molecular regulatory framework established by the cell fate map in a multi-dimensional manner
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The study found that transcription factors are at four levels, lineage source, body axis positioning, cell type, and development time.

 

In order to understand the developmental function of transcription factors, this study integrated single-cell expression similarity and transcription factor - target gene information based on experimental data , and constructed a spatiotemporal specific regulatory loop, covering the regulation of more than 8000 transcription factors in 161 developmental spatiotemporal modules Based on this, it reveals the new functions of classical regulatory genes and the new developmental regulation process .

For example, this study found that in addition to the classic regulation of epidermal cell fate, ELT-1/GATA3 also controlled the fate of neural precursor cells of the same lineage, suggesting that the essence of ELT-1 function is to regulate both epidermal and neural fate at the lineage level .
In another analysis, this study revealed the key function of M03D4.
4/VEZF1 in the convergent differentiation of muscle subtype cells.

 

The integration of molecules and cell maps with high temporal and spatial precision provides help for simulating and analyzing the dynamic relationship between cell regulation and cell fate
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This study then systematically explored the diversity and complexity of the regulatory state

 

In conclusion, the present study provides for the analytical molecular regulation of embryonic development law complete, accurate, and standardized reference information for the " revelation expression " function of developmental genes, regulatory status - Quantitative Biological Function, a single cell - the whole embryo - Lay the foundation for multi-dimensional systems biology research .

For " higher " model animals, single-cell analysis may be an emerging field, and nematode developmental biology has entered the single-cell era for more than 40 years .

 

　　The research team Ma Xuehua, Zhao Zhiguang and Xiao Long are the co-first authors of this paper.

Xu Weina, Kou Yahui, Wang Yangyang and Zhang Yanping and Wu Gang of the Dong Mengqiu Laboratory of Beijing Institute of Life Sciences participated in some of the work.
Researcher Du Zhuo is the corresponding author of this article

　　  

Figure: The dynamic map of transcription factor single-cell protein expression reveals the basic framework of molecular regulation for the establishment of developmental fate schemes