A unified single cell atlas of the mouse retina
Single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has advanced the assessment of cellular heterogeneity at the single-cell resolution by identifying transcriptional similarities and differences. Data resources of scRNA-seq have been largely produced and extensively studied for the mouse retina. They serve as a powerful tool to study cellular components, transcriptome relationships, and regulatory mechanisms underlying various retinal diseases and biological processes. The large volume of mouse retinal scRNA-seq data has been released in separate repositories, limiting their widespread use in mouse retina communities. In this work, we are presenting a unified single-cell atlas for adult wild-type mouse retina using our in-house generated single-cell RNA-seq data complementing public datasets. The collected data account for over 323,000 single cells. After data integration, cell clustering, and cell type annotation, we have annotated 11 major classes and over 120 retinal cell types to form a unified single-cell reference for the mouse retina. To facilitate the public use of the reference, we have deposited it on CELLxGENE, UCSC Cell Browser, and Single Cell Portal for visualization and gene expression exploration. The unified atlas is also released to annotate new mouse retinal cells using scArches utilities. This unified reference serves an easy-to-use data resource of mouse retina communities. Overall design: 16 samples were dissociated retinal cells with no enrichment method and 2 samples were enriched for neuronal cells using CD73 and CD90.2 markers using FACS.