Identification of diverse cell populations in skeletal muscles and biomarkers for intramuscular fat of chicken by single-cell RNA sequencing

BMC Genomics

Jinghui Li¹  Xinting Yang¹  Guiping Zhao¹  Jiahong Sun¹  Ranran Liu¹  Maiqing Zheng¹  Jie Wen¹  Siyuan Xing² 

[1] Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, 100193, Beijing, P. R. China;Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, 100193, Beijing, P. R. China;Animal Breeding and Genomics, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands;

关键词: scRNA-seq;    Breast muscle;    Intramuscular fat;    Cell cluster;    RNA in situ hybridization;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12864-020-07136-2

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe development of skeletal muscle is closely related to the efficiency of meat production and meat quality. Chicken skeletal muscle development depends on myogenesis and adipogenesis and occurs in two phases—hyperplasia and hypertrophy. However, cell profiles corresponding to the two-phase muscle development have yet to be determined. Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) can elucidate the cell subpopulations in tissue and capture the gene expression of individual cells, which can provide new insights into the myogenesis and intramuscular adipogenesis.ResultsTen cell clusters at the post-hatching developmental stage at Day 5 and seven cell clusters at the late developmental stage at Day 100 were identified in chicken breast muscles by scRNA-seq. Five myocyte-related clusters and two adipocyte clusters were identified at Day 5, and one myocyte cluster and one adipocyte cluster were identified at Day 100. The pattern of cell clustering varied between the two stages. The cell clusters showed clear boundaries at the terminal differentiation stage at Day 100; by contrast, cell differentiation was not complete at Day 5. APOA1 and COL1A1 were selected from up-regulated genes in the adipocyte cluster and found to be co-expressed with the ADIPOQ adipocyte marker gene in breast muscles by RNA in situ hybridization.ConclusionsThis study is the first to describe the heterogeneity of chicken skeletal muscle at two developmental stages. The genes APOA1 and COL1A1 were identified as biomarkers for chicken intramuscular fat cells.

【 授权许可】

CC BY