Single cell RNA-sequencing reveals cellular heterogeneity and trajectories of lineage specification

The coordinated spatial and temporal regulation of gene expression in the murine hindlimb determines the identity of mesenchymal progenitors and the development of diversity of musculoskeletal tissues they form. Hindlimb development has historically been studied with lineage tracing of individual genes selected a priori, or at the bulk tissue level, which does not allow for the determination of single cell transcriptional programs yielding mature cell types and tissues. To identify the cellular trajectories of lineage specification during limb bud development, we used single cell mRNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to profile the developing murine hindlimb. Overall design: one sample from murine embryonic hindlimb tissue