Spatial transcriptome uncovers the mouse lung architectures and functions

Revealing the relationships between the tissue structures and transcriptomic information is significant for understanding the mechanisms and principles underpinning the biological processes in lung development and diseases. The widely transcriptomic technics, including bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing, cannot accurately restore the tissue location of the gene expression. The advanced spatial transcriptomic tools can fill this gap properly with in-situ RNA capturing and spatial barcode labeling and translating. However, the published spatial transcriptome data of lung is rare or low-quality. Here we harnessed the large-view and high-resolution capabilities of Stereo-seq, one of the most advanced spatial transcriptome tools, in a 5-week-old female mouse to uncover the lung functions with their tissue location resolved. We also found a gradient expression of a bunch of genes related to cell proliferation along the axis of the proximal-to-distal trachea. All the data provided by the study pave the way for further studies in lung development and disease in the future.