Deep single-cell RNAseq of postnatal day 7 microglia from wild type and Trem2 knockout brains

We generated single-cell RNAseq profiles of 369 microglia (183 from wild type and 186 from Trem2 knock-out), sorted in the gate CD45lowCD11+ or CD45lowCD11+Gpnmb+Clec7a+ (PAM enrichment), to compare gene expression of wild type vs. Trem2 knock-out microglia on the postnatal day 7. Single cells were FACS index sorted from the whole brain followed by Smart-seq2 library preparation and Illumina Nextseq (sequence depth > 1 million per cell). A total of 334 cells passed quality control for data analysis. Microglia in the Trem2 knock-out contained a similar PAM population with characteristic gene expression, suggesting that the presence of early postnatal PAM do not depend on TREM2. Single microglia were FACS sorted from male animals (C57BL/6J background) into 96-well plates. Libraries were prepared with a semi-automated Smart-seq2 protocol. Three QC criteria were used (Y=passed, N=not passed), and only cells that passed all three criteria were used for downstream analysis.