Deciphering the evolution of vertebrate immune cell types with single-cell RNA-seq

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1 Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
2 Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.26858v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Evolutionary Studies, Immunology
Keywords
adaptive immune system, transcriptomics, single-cell RNA sequencing, immune cell-type, vertebrate evolution, non-mammalian immune cell discovery
Copyright
© 2018 Carmona et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Carmona SJ, Gfeller D. 2018. Deciphering the evolution of vertebrate immune cell types with single-cell RNA-seq. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26858v1

Abstract

Single-cell RNA-seq is revolutionizing our understanding of cell type heterogeneity in many fields of biology, ranging from neuroscience to cancer to immunology. In Immunology, one of the main promises of this approach is the ability to define cell types as clusters in the whole transcriptome space (i.e., without relying on specific surface markers), thereby providing an unbiased classification of immune cell types. So far, this technology has been mainly applied in mouse and human. However, technically it could be used for immune cell-type identification in any species without requiring the development and validation of species-specific antibodies for cell sorting. Here we review recent developments using single-cell RNA-seq to characterize immune cell populations in non-mammalian vertebrates, with a focus on zebrafish (Danio rerio). We advocate that single-cell RNA-seq technology is likely to provide key insights into our understanding of the evolution of the adaptive immune system.

Author Comment

Here we review recent developments using single-cell RNA-seq to characterize immune cell populations in non-mammalian vertebrates, with a focus on zebrafish