Context-dependent Regulation of Notch Signaling in Glial Development and Tumorigenesis [scRNA-seq]

In the mammalian brain, Notch signaling maintains the cortical stem cell pool and regulates the glial cell fate choice and differentiation. However, the function of Notch in regulating glial development and its involvement in tumorigenesis have not been well understood. Here, we show that Notch inactivation by genetic deletion of Rbpj in stem cells decreases astrocytes but increases oligodendrocytes with altered internal states. Interestingly, inhibiting Notch in glial progenitors does not affect cell generation but instead accelerates the growth of Notch-deprived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs), and OPC-related glioma. We also identified a crosstalk between oligodendrocytes and astrocytes, with premyelinating oligodendrocytes secreting Bmp4, which is repressed by Notch, to upregulate GFAP expression in adjacent astrocytes. Moreover, Notch inactivation in stem cells causes a glioma subtype shift from astroglia-associated to OPC-correlated patterns, and vice versa. Our study reveals Notch's context-dependent function, promoting astrocytes and astroglia-associated glioma in stem cells and repressing OPCs and related glioma in glial progenitors. Overall design: scRNA-seq: Individual cells were sorted from the P1 cortices of RbpjF/F; H2B-GFPF/+ mice performed in utero electroporation with pCAG-Cre plasmid at E15.5.