Single cell RNA-seq to resolve heterogeneity in a cardiac differentiation timecourse from wild-type and HAND1-null hESCs

The aim was to assess the role of HAND1 in cardiac differentiation. The differentiation protocol was designed to promote cell diversity. For wild-type and HAND1-null cell lines we combined cells differentiating under different conditions: 50% control, 25% SB-treated (day 2-3) and 25% DMH1-treated (day 2-3). The addition of SB at day 2, inhibited SMAD2/3 phosphorylation and created a high BMP signalling bias to restrict cardiac differentiation in favour of other mesodermal lineages, whereas the addition of DMH1 at day 2, inhibited SMAD1/5/8 phosphorylation to create a high Activin signaling bias to promote the co-differentiation of endoderm. Samples were collected at days 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 for wild-type and HAND1-null populations. An additional day 7 and 8 sample was included for the wild-type, which was generated in the same condition.