Transcriptome analysis of a multipotent progenitor and its differentiated sister in C. elegans

Adult stem and progenitor cells are capable of producing a few related cell types. The genes and molecular mechanisms that regulate and determine this capacity are not well understood. This project uses progenitors of the C. elegans reproductive system as a model for defining the genetic determinants of multipotency. The somatic gonadal precursors (SGPs) are multipotent progenitors that generate all somatic tissues of the reproductive system. Each SGP is the product of a cell division that produces one SGP and one differentiated cell, the head mesodermal cell (hmc). Therefore, in this single cell division the potential to generate all of the somatic gonadal types is differentially segregated into one daughter cell. The goal of this project is to identify the genes that distinguish multipotent SGPs from their differentiated hmc sisters. We generated a strain that expressed fluorescent markers specifically in SGPs (ehn 3A::tdTomato) and hmcs (bgal-1::GFP). We dissociated cells from animals after the SGP/hmc cell division but before the SGPs had further divided, and subjected the dissociated cells to fluorescence-activated cell sorting to collect isolated SGPs and hmcs. We compared the transcriptomes of SGPs and hmcs to identify the determinants of multipotency and differentiation in this lineage.