C1 single-cell RNA-seq of Adult Human spermatoognia

To reveal distinct transcriptomes associated with spermatogonial stem cell renewal vs. initiation of differentiation, single-cell transcriptomes from Adult Human spermatogonia were subdivided into subpopulations based on the levels of ID4 mRNA (determined in this experiment). This correlates with distinct fates of corresponding mouse spermatogonia when assayed by transplantation, with ID4-EGFPbright cells highly enriched for SSCs, and ID4-EGFPdim cells enriched for progenitors. We used the Fluidigm C1 instrument to capture individual spermatogonia for SMART-Seq2 single-cell RNA-seq. Nine replicate preparations of Adult Human spermatogonia were used for this study. Data are from a total of 635 cells. Cells were binned into quartiles according to ID4 mRNA levels (Q1 = ID4-high, Q4=ID4-low, Q2 and Q3 have intermediate ID4 mRNA levels) to facilitate comparisons.