GSE211390
Transcriptional Metabolic Reprograming Drives Meiotic Fate Decision in Mammalian Germ Cells
Nitrogen starvation drives meiosis in yeasts1, while retinoic acid (RA) is required for mammalian meiosis through the activation of its germline-specific target, stimulated by retinoic acid gene 8 (Stra8).Here, by using single-cell transcriptome analysis of wild-type and Stra8-deficient testes, our data revealed that the expression of major metabolic genes are downregulated during germ cell entry into meiosis. Recently, we collected mouse testicular cells from wild-type and Stra8-deficient mice at postnatal day 12 (P12) and P21 for single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq). Upon scRNA-seq, we obtained a total of 23,470 cells from these samples. Using stringent quality control, 22,839 cells were selected for further analysis. All cells, including both wild-type and Stra8-deficient testicular cells, were pooled together to perform clustering analysis, which revealed 6 major cell clusters based on their distinct gene expression patterns. We annotated these six clusters by using known marker genes, including spermatogonia (SPG; Stra8; 3,941 cells), spermatocyte (SPC; Syce1; 4,924 cells), spermatid (STD; Acrv1; 710 cells), Sertoli cell (SC; Sox9; 9,488 cells), Myeloid (MYD; Acta2; 3,531 cells), and Leydig Cells (LY; Star; 245 cells). There is an increase in the percentage of spermatogonia in Stra8-deficient testes at both P12 (28% versus 14% in wild-type) and P21 (17% versus 10% in wild-type). At P21, while spermatocytes are abundant and spermatid are formed in wild-type testes, there are only a few spermatocytes (0.2% versus 73% in wild-type), and spermatids are absent in Stra8-deficient testes. Signature genes are enriched for GO terms for distinct biological function and metabolic pathways in different cell types. Overall design: Single cell RNA sequencing of wild-type and  stra8 deficient mouse testis were generated by deep sequencing using the 10x Genomics Chromium Single Cell Gene Expression Solution