The single-cell stereo-seq reveals region-specific cell subtypes and transcriptome profiling in Arabidopsis leaves

• Published in: Developmental cell Vol. 57; no. 10; pp. 1299 - 1310.e4
• Main Authors: Xia, Keke, Sun, Hai-Xi, Li, Jie, Li, Jiming, Zhao, Yu, Chen, Lichuan, Qin, Chao, Chen, Ruiying, Chen, Zhiyong, Liu, Guangyu, Yin, Ruilian, Mu, Bangbang, Wang, Xiaojuan, Xu, Mengyuan, Li, Xinyue, Yuan, Peisi, Qiao, Yixin, Hao, Shijie, Wang, Jing, Xie, Qing, Xu, Jiangshan, Liu, Shiping, Li, Yuxiang, Chen, Ao, Liu, Longqi, Yin, Ye, Yang, Huanming, Wang, Jian, Gu, Ying, Xu, Xun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 23.05.2022
• Subjects: Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis - metabolism; Arabidopsis leaves; Gene Expression Profiling; Plant Leaves - genetics; Single-Cell Analysis; single-cell spatial transcriptome; single-cell Stereo-seq; spatial developmental trajectory; Transcriptome - genetics; single-cell spatial transcriptome; Arabidopsis leaves; single-cell Stereo-seq; spatial developmental trajectory
• ISSN: 1534-5807; 1878-1551
• DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2022.04.011

Understanding the complex functions of plant leaves requires a thorough characterization of discrete cell features. Although single-cell gene expression profiling technologies have been developed, their application in characterizing cell subtypes has not been achieved yet. Here, we present scStereo-seq (single-cell spatial enhanced resolution omics sequencing) that enabled us to show the bona fide single-cell spatial transcriptome profiles of Arabidopsis leaves. Subtle but significant transcriptomic differences between upper and lower epidermal cells have been successfully distinguished. Furthermore, we discovered cell-type-specific gene expression gradients from the main vein to the leaf edge, which led to the finding of distinct spatial developmental trajectories of vascular cells and guard cells. Our study showcases the importance of physical locations of individual cells for exerting complex biological functions in plants and demonstrates that scStereo-seq is a powerful tool to integrate single-cell location and transcriptome information for plant biology study. [Display omitted] •Establishing an in situ single-cell spatial transcriptome method in plant•Identification of cell subtypes and subtle transcriptional differences•Cell-type-specific gene expression gradients from the main vein to the leaf edge•scStereo-seq enables the construction of spatially resolved developmental trajectories Xia et al. establish the single-cell spatial transcriptome technique (scStereo-seq) in Arabidopsis leaves and discover subtle but significant transcriptional differences between cell subtypes, demonstrating that scStereo-seq is a powerful tool to integrate single-cell location and transcriptome information for plant biology study.