Daniel Edsgärd

TL;DR: A comprehensive transcriptional map of human embryo development, including the sequenced transcriptomes of 1,529 individual cells from 88 human preimplantation embryos, shows that cells undergo an intermediate state of co-expression of lineage-specific genes, followed by a concurrent establishment of the trophectoderm, epiblast, and primitive endoderm lineages, which coincide with blastocyst formation.

TL;DR: Trendsceek, a method based on marked point processes that identifies genes with statistically significant spatial expression trends, finds these genes in spatial transcriptomic and sequential fluorescence in situ hybridization data, and also reveals significant gene expression gradients and hot spots in low-dimensional projections of dissociated single-cell RNA-seq data.

TL;DR: New evidence is provided that the molecular phenotype of CIS cells is similar to that of gonocytes, and it is speculated that disturbed development of somatic cells in the fetal testis may play a role in allowing undifferentiated cells to survive in the postnatal testes.

Abstract: Studies of the resurrection plant Craterostigma plantagineum have revealed some of the mechanisms which these desiccation-tolerant plants use to survive environments with extreme dehydration and restricted seasonal water. Most resurrection plants are polyploid with large genomes, which has hindered efforts to obtain whole genome sequences and perform mutational analysis. However, the application of deep sequencing technologies to transcriptomics now permits large-scale analyses of gene expression patterns despite the lack of a reference genome. Here we use pyro-sequencing to characterize the transcriptomes of C. plantagineum leaves at four stages of dehydration and rehydration. This reveals that genes involved in several pathways, such as those required for vitamin K and thiamin biosynthesis, are tightly regulated at the level of gene expression. Our analysis also provides a comprehensive picture of the array of cellular responses controlled by gene expression that allow resurrection plants to survive desiccation.

TL;DR: The association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the TGFBR3 and BMP7 genes, which belong to the transforming growth factor β signalling pathway, suggests a role for this pathway in the pathogenesis of TDS.