Single-cell transcription mapping of neural subtype development in human spinal cord

The spinal cord possesses precise neural circuitry to transmit messages between the brain and body. Detailed transcriptomic profiling of the developing human spinal cord has not been reported. Here, we performed single cell RNA sequencing of developing human spinal cord cells and compared these data with similar mouse spinal cord RNA sequencing datasets. The differentiation tendency of proliferative neural progenitor cells changed from neuronal to glial cells at gestational week (GW) 8 and we identified a diverse set of excitatory, inhibitory and motor neuron cell types. Human ventral neuronal differentiation occurred earlier than GW7, while DI4/5 interneurons are born between GW7–11. We identified glial cell molecular diversity and revealed that ependymal cell specification occurs before birth. We also demonstrate differences between human and mouse spinal cord, including unique cell subtypes, gene expression, neurotransmitter receptors, and glial differentiation timing. Our results offer insight into human spinal cord development. Here we performed both nucleus single-cell RNA sequencing and cellular single-cell RNA sequencing analyses of more than 880,000 cells isolated from the human spinal cord at gestation week 7 to 25.