scRNA-seq of ferret cortical germinal zones from splenial gyrus and lateral sulcus (Borrell lab)

Diversity of cortical radial glia cells (RGCs) and their complex relationships to generate neurons in species with expanded germinal zones and a folded cortex, remains unclear. We used single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of microdissected cortical germinal layers (ventricular zone (VZ) and outer subventricular zone (OSVZ)), from two cortical regions (splenial gyrus (SG) and neighboring lateral sulcus (LS)) at two critical time points for ferret cortex development (embryonic day (E) 34 and postnatal day (P) 1) to distinguish the molecular diversity of progenitors and newborn neurons, and study their transcriptomic trajectories. Individually microdissected germinal zones from living brain slices were isolated from the six following conditions (E34_VZ_SG, E34_VZ_LS, P1_VZ_SG, P1_VZ_LS, P1_OSVZ_SG, P1_VZ_LS) and processed for scRNA-seq. We obtained each condition from 3 independent biological replicas, each replica profiled individually and containing cells from 2-4 sibling E34 embryos or 1 P1 kit, from a total of 9 litters.