Tabula Muris: Transcriptomic characterization of 20 organs and tissues from Mus musculus at single cell resolution

We have created a compendium of single cell transcriptome data from the model
organism Mus musculus comprising more than 100,000 cells from 20 organs and
tissues. These data represent a new resource for cell biology, revealing gene
expression in poorly characterized cell populations and allowing for direct and
controlled comparison of gene expression in cell types shared between tissues, such
as T-lymphocytes and endothelial cells from distinct anatomical locations. Two
distinct technical approaches were used for most tissues: one approach, microfluidic
droplet-based 3’-end counting, enabled the survey of thousands of cells at relatively
low coverage, while the other, FACS-based full length transcript analysis, enabled
characterization of cell types with high sensitivity and coverage. The cumulative
data provide the foundation for an atlas of transcriptomic cell biology.

本研究构建了来自模式生物小家鼠（Mus musculus）的单细胞转录组数据汇编，涵盖20种器官与组织共逾10万个细胞。该数据集为细胞生物学领域提供了全新的研究资源，可揭示特征尚未明确的细胞群内的基因表达特征，还可实现不同组织共有的细胞类型（如源自不同解剖部位的T淋巴细胞与内皮细胞）的基因表达水平的直接可控比较。针对绝大多数组织，本研究采用了两种差异化的技术方案：其一为基于微流控液滴的3’端计数法，可在相对较低的测序覆盖度下完成数千个细胞的转录组检测；其二为基于荧光激活细胞分选（Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting, FACS）的全长转录本分析技术，能够以高灵敏度与高覆盖度对细胞类型进行精准表征。该整合数据集为转录组学细胞生物学图谱的构建奠定了核心基础。