Inference of differentiation time for single cell transcriptomes using cell population reference data

To understand the molecular mechanisms of neural commitment from mouse ESCs, we selected very dense time points during neural differentiation based on qPCR results and performed mRNA-sequencing at both of cell population and single cell levels. Overall design: Two neural induction protocols were used. 21 time points were selected for cell population mRNA-seq. Of them, 8 time points were selected for single cell RNA-seq, and for each time point, 8 individual cells were selected.

为解析小鼠胚胎干细胞（mouse ESCs）向神经细胞定向分化的分子机制，本研究基于定量PCR（qPCR）结果，在神经分化过程中选取了高密度的时间节点，并分别在细胞群体水平与单细胞水平开展了mRNA测序（mRNA-sequencing）。
实验整体设计：本研究采用两种神经诱导方案。针对细胞群体mRNA测序，我们选取了21个时间节点；其中8个时间节点被进一步选取用于单细胞RNA测序，且每个时间节点下均选取8个单个细胞进行测序。