Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals testicular niche cells development in pigs

Purpose: To understand the overall transcriptional profile changes in porcine testicular niche cells development. Overall design: We profiled single cell RNA-seq to shed light on transcriptional changes in testicular niche cells development in pigs (7-days old, 30-days old, 60-days old and 90-days old). The scRNA-seq analysis revealed three Sertoli cell types, five Leydig cell types and four peritubular myoid cell types. The functional enrichment analysis manifested these cell types played a diverse role in porcine testis development. The porcine testis development is complemented with comparative analyses performed on human species. Also, we calculated the transcription factors from these somatic cell types by pySCENIC . Taken together, our datasets and comparative analyses provide multiple insights into the development of porcine testis niche during puberty, while also providing a valuable data resource for the study of pig testis development.