Identification of retinal cell types within the ageing African turquoise killifish retina and their respective age-related transcriptional changes using scRNA-seq
The mammalian central nervous system (CNS) and its retina are susceptible to age-related patholgoies, resulting in progressive, irreversible diseases like glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which are increasingly prevalent with rising life expectancy. Currently, there are no targeted long-term therapies to prevent vision loss. The short lived African turquoise killifsh (Nothobranchius furzeri, GRZ-AD) is a valuable genetic model for ageing studies, displaying rapid ageing phenotypes within its four to six-month lifespan. Our investigation on the molecular consequences of ageing in the retina, employing scRNA-sequencing, shows a a comprehensive overview of the cellular heterogeneity of the killifish retina, uncovering age-related gene expression changes specific to certain retinal cell populations. Overall design: The investigate the cellular heterogeneity of the killifish retina and age-related cell type specific gene expression changes, we performed scRNA-sequencing on the retinas of young (6 weeks), middle-aged (12 weeks) and old (18 weeks) killifish. Per condition (age group), we included two biological replicates containing retinas from 3 (young) or 2 (middle-aged and old) female killifish.