Scientists draw a single-cell transcription map of rice seedling roots and leaves

Two-dimensional UMAP map and tissue anatomy map of single-cell transcriptome of rice seedling leaves and roots.
Source: Qian Wenfeng, etc.

The Qian Wenfeng research group of the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences applied single-cell transcriptome sequencing technology to obtain the transcriptome information of more than 200,000 single cells in the leaves and roots of rice seedlings, using cell type marker genes and in situ hybridization technology , The identity of each cell was identified, and a single-cell transcription map of rice seedling leaves and roots was constructed
.
Related results were published in the "Journal of Genetics and Genomics" recently

As an important food crop, rice provides the staple food for more than half of the world’s population.
At the same time, as a monocot model plant, rice has received continuous and extensive attention from its individual development and cell differentiation
.
The differentiation of cell function can often be reflected in differences in gene expression

Qian Wenfeng and others constructed a single-cell transcription map of rice seedling leaves and roots
.
Based on this map, it was further discovered that although the same types of tissues of leaves and roots (such as leaf and root vascular tissues, mesophyll cells and root cortex cells) have significant transcriptome similarity, the transcriptomes of leaf and root epidermal tissues are not.

The study compared the differences in single-cell transcription profiles of rice seedlings under multiple growth conditions and found that when rice responds to low nitrogen, iron deficiency, and high salt stresses, different types of cells often take cell type-specific transcriptional responses, while the same type Cells tend to use similar transcriptional regulation mechanisms in response to different stresses
.
Under stress conditions, the seedlings showed yellowing of leaves

By further reconstructing the developmental trajectory of mesophyll cells, the author found that at different stages of mesophyll cell development, genes with different functions dynamically respond in sequence according to a specific time sequence, which provides clues for understanding the differences in cell differentiation under abiotic stress

The research has laid the foundation for the single-cell resolution omics research of rice seedlings, and provided a new perspective for in-depth analysis of plant life activities

Related paper information: https://doi.