scRNAseq of heterozygous HNF1B-mutant vs non-mutant kidney organoids derived from human embryonic stem cells
Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) lines Man-13 were edited by CRISPR resulting in a hESC line carrying a heterozygous frameshift mutation with a premature stop codon in exon-1 of the HNF1B gene ([p.Val61Argfs*18]), functionally equivalent to a heterozygous whole-gene deletion. Kidney organoids were then created by differentiation (as per Takasato et al, 2015; Bantounas et al, 2018; Bantounas et al 2021) of this line and an isogenic non-mutant control line. Single-cell RNAseq (scRNAseq) was then performed on day-25 of differentiation to identify transcriptomic differences, as well as differences in identity and numbers of the cell populations comprising the organoids, with the aim of mechanistically explaining developmental aberrations observed in patients with mutations in this gene.