Energy homeostasis is essential for the adaptation of animals to their environment and some wild animals keep low metabolism adaptive to their low-nutrient diet. Giant panda is a representative species with an extremely low energy expenditure,
such as reduced basal metabolism, thyroid hormones, and physical activities, whereas the cellular bases of low metabolic adaptation against low-nutrient diet remain rarely explored.
Here we conduct single-nucleus RNA sequencing of 185,186 cells from 21 organs/tissues of the giant panda and report a panda repertoire of 41 major cell types.
and their expression profiles, explored the possible cellular basis and transcriptomic regulatory clues for its low metabolism.
Background: Energy homeostasis is essential along the whole lifespan and some wild animals keep low metabolism adaptive to their low-nutrient diet.
Giant panda is a representative species with an extremely low energy expenditure. It shows a series of low metabolism related biological characteristics,
including reduced inner organs and the overall low basal metabolism,
low thyroid hormones levels and few physical activities. Exploration the cell heterogeneity of giant panda helps to understand the cellular basis of low metabolic adaptation against low-nutrient diet.
Results: We conducted large-scale single-nucleus sequencing of 185,186 nuclei from 21 organs/tissues of one giant panda donor.
Based on this dataset, we reported a repertoire of 41 major cell types and their expression profiles, explored the possible cellular basis and transcriptomic regulatory clues for its low metabolism.
We firstly showed the differential expression patterns of liver by cross-species comparison,
secondly the fatty acid uptake and oxidation seemed to occur separately in two ventricle cardiomyocyte subtypes and then the heterogeneity of global endothelial cells.
In addition, a rough virus receptor screening was performed, hoping to provide scientific insights for management and conservation of the giant panda.
Conclusions: This is the first time to report single-nucleus atlas of giant panda, which also represents the most comprehensive single-cell/nucleus atlas among wildlife.
Our analysis revealed essential transcriptomic features within certain cell types important for energy homeostasis,
representing a step to investigate species specialization from a perspective of cell biology. This atlas will undoubtedly be a valuable resource for future studies on evolution, ecology and conservation of giant pandas.
Citation will be updated.
Contact:
Sheng-Guo Fang, Ph.D., Professor
Group leader, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University
Email: sgfanglab@zju.edu.cn
Address: Room 435, College of Life Sciences, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University
Cell information vs gene expression on reduced dimensions
In this tab, users can visualise both cell information and gene
expression side-by-side on low-dimensional representions.
Cell information / gene expression violin plot / box plot
In this tab, users can visualise the gene expression or continuous cell information
(e.g. Number of UMIs / module score) across groups of cells (e.g. libary / clusters).
Proportion / cell numbers across different cell information
In this tab, users can visualise the composition of single cells based on one discrete
cell information across another discrete cell information.
Usage examples include the library or cellcycle composition across clusters.
In this tab, users can visualise the gene expression patterns of
multiple genes grouped by categorical cell information (e.g. library / cluster).
The normalised expression are averaged, log-transformed and then plotted.