Single-cell level gene expression profiles of enteroendocrine cell lineages, control guts and guts with Xrp1 overexpressed in EEs

Differentiated cells exhibit cell plasticity, where they dedifferentiate to stem cells or trans-differentiate into cells of another lineage, when necessary. We studied the cell plasticity of secretory enternendocrine cells (EEs) in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. We resolved single-cell transcriptomics of EEs and cells derived from EEs. Our scRNA-seq data of EE lineages have characterized intermediate cell types derived from EEs. We also specifically focused on a gene called Xrp1 and examined potential changes of all epithelial cell types by EE-specific Xrp1 overexpression (O/E). Our scRNA-seq data of Xrp1 O/E EEs have provided evidence on changes in gene expression profiles of each cell type by Xrp1 O/E in EEs. Flies had EEs lineage traced from adulthood to 7 days of age. Cells from their midguts were collected and isolated by Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting. Flies with Xrp1 overexpressed in EEs had their midgut cells collected. Cells were proceeded to 10X Genomics scRNA-seq.

分化细胞具备细胞可塑性（cell plasticity）：在必要条件下，它们可去分化为干细胞，或转分化为其他谱系的细胞。本研究针对黑腹果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）中的分泌型肠内分泌细胞（secretory enteroendocrine cells，原文笔误为enternendocrine，简称EEs）的细胞可塑性展开探究。我们解析了EEs及其子代细胞的单细胞转录组学（single-cell transcriptomics）特征。本次获得的EE谱系单细胞RNA测序（single-cell RNA sequencing，scRNA-seq）数据，已完成对EEs来源中间细胞类型的特征鉴定。此外，我们重点关注了Xrp1基因，通过在EEs中特异性过表达Xrp1（overexpression，简称O/E），检测了所有上皮细胞类型的潜在表达变化。针对Xrp1过表达EEs的scRNA-seq数据，证实了Xrp1 O/E可调控EEs中各类细胞的基因表达谱。实验中，我们对成年至7日龄的果蝇EE谱系进行了追踪，收集其肠道中肠细胞，并通过荧光激活细胞分选（Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting，FACS）完成分离纯化。对于EEs中过表达Xrp1的果蝇，我们同样收集其中肠细胞，随后采用10X Genomics平台完成scRNA-seq实验。