GSE128948
Single-cell RNA-seq reveals neural progenitor subpopulations and divergent astrocyte lineages
Astrocytes are one of the most abundant cell types in the mammalian central nervous system. Their diversity was widely investigated in the adult brain recently. However, the heterogeneity of astrocyte progenitors in their early developmental stage is still not clear. In this study, we dissected the subpopulations of neural progenitor cells at the neurogenesis and the early gliogenesis stages by single-cell RNA sequencing analysis. Interestingly, we identified two astrocyte progenitor subgroups from the cerebral cortex. The astrocyte subgroups highly express Sparc or Sparcl1, which were reported have contrary functions in astrocytes to regulate synapse formation. Further analysis for subpopulations of neural progenitors from the ventral forebrain also identified two astrocyte progenitor subgroups, showing similar gene expression patterns as in the cortex. Surprisingly, clustering analysis between the subpopulations from the dorsal and the ventral forebrains showed that the astrocyte progenitors expressing Sparc or Sparcl1 were clustered together, irrespective of their derived regions. These results showed an early divergence of astrocyte progenitors and their cross-regional conservation at the start of gliogenesis during brain development. Overall design: Single-cell RNA-seq of neural progenitor cells during neurogenesis and gliogenesis