Mapping developmental paths of monkey primordial germ-like cell differentiation from pluripotent stem cells by single cell RNA sequencing analysis

The induction of the primordial germ-like cells (PGCLCs) from primate pluripotent stem cells (PSCs)provides a powerful system to study the cellular and molecular mechanism underlying germline specification, which are difficult to study in vivo. However a comprehensive single cell RNA sequencing(scRNA-seq) analysis of the developmental trajectory of PGCLCs differentiation that also dissects the required niche has not been achieved. Here, we applied the embryoid body (EB) differentiation system to induce PGCLCs specification from male and female monkey naïve-state PSCs and then performed high throughput scRNA-seq analysis of approximately 40000 of naïve cells and cells within EBs. We found that EBs provided a niche for PGCLCs differentiation by secreting growth factors critical for PGCLCs specification, such as BPM2, BMP4 and WNT3. Moreover, the developmental trajectory of PGCLCs was reconstituted and gene expression dynamics were revealed. Our study outlines the roadmap of PGCLCs specification from PSCs and provides insights that will improve the differentiation efficiency of PGCLCs from PSCs. Overall design: Six samples (female and male 4i-state cells, and day 2 and day 4 EBs)