Single-cell transcriptional diversity is a hallmark of developmental potential

TLDR

Cell differentiation hierarchies are crucial for organ development, tissue regeneration, and cancer, yet their detailed organization remains poorly understood. The study aims to develop reliable computational methods to predict cell lineage trajectories using single‑cell RNA sequencing. CytoTRACE infers differentiation potential by modeling the decline of transcriptional diversity as cells mature. CytoTRACE outperformed existing methods in benchmark tests and revealed cellular hierarchies in both healthy and tumor tissues. Published in Science (p.

Abstract

More diversity at the top A detailed knowledge of cell differentiation hierarchies is important for understanding diverse biological processes such as organ development, tissue regeneration, and cancer. Single-cell RNA sequencing can help elucidate these hierarchies, but it requires reliable computational methods for predicting cell lineage trajectories. Gulati et al. developed CytoTRACE, a computational framework based on the simple observation that transcriptional diversity—the number of genes expressed in a cell—decreases during differentiation. CytoTRACE outperformed other methods in several test cases and was successfully applied to study cellular hierarchies in healthy and tumor tissue. Science , this issue p. 405