Insights for disease modeling from single cell transcriptomics of iPSC-derived neurons and astrocytes across differentiation time and co-culture

Das, D.; Sonthalia, S.; Stein-O'Brien, G. G.; Wahbeh, M.; Feuer, K.; Colantuoni, C.; Machairaki, V.; Avramopoulos, D.

doi:10.1101/2022.06.15.495952

Home/Archive/bioRxiv

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2022.06.15.495952

Insights for disease modeling from single cell transcriptomics of iPSC-derived neurons and astrocytes across differentiation time and co-culture

Das, D.·Sonthalia, S.·Stein-O'Brien, G. G.·Wahbeh, M.·Feuer, K.·Colantuoni, C.·Machairaki, V.·Avramopoulos, D.

View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Trans-differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells into neurons via Ngn2-induction (hiPSC-N) has become an efficient system to quickly generate neurons for disease modeling and in vitro assay development, a significant advance from previously used neoplastic and other cell lines. Recent single-cell interrogation of Ngn2-induced neurons however, has revealed some similarities to unexpected neuronal lineages. Similarly, a straightforward method to generate hiPSC derived astrocytes (hiPSC-A) for the study of neuropsychiatric disorders has also been described. Here we examine the homogeneity and similarity of hiPSC-N and hiPSC-A to their in vivo counterparts, the impact of different lengths of time post Ngn2 induction on hiPSC-N (15 or 21 days) and of hiPSC-N / hiPSC-A co-culture. Leveraging the wealth of existing public single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) data in Ngn2-induced neurons and in vivo data from the developing brain, we provide perspectives on the lineage origins and maturation of hiPSC-N and hiPSC-A. While induction protocols in different labs produce consistent cell type profiles, both hiPSC-N and hiPSC-A show significant heterogeneity and similarity to multiple in vivo cell fates, and both more precisely approximate their in vivo counterparts when co-cultured. Gene expression data from the hiPSC-N show enrichment of genes linked to schizophrenia (SZ) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) as has been previously shown for neural stem cells and neurons. These overrepresentations of disease genes are strongest in our system at early times (day 15) in Ngn2-induction/maturation of neurons, when we also observe the greatest similarity to early in vivo excitatory neurons. We have assembled this new scRNA-seq data along with the public data explored here as an integrated biologist-friendly web-resource for researchers seeking to understand this system more deeply: nemoanalytics.org/p?l=DasEtAlNGN2&g=PRPH.

Source connections

Published article ↗

Explore related subjects

genetics Preprint

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

Das, D., Sonthalia, S., Stein-O'Brien, G. G., Wahbeh, M., Feuer, K., Colantuoni, C., Machairaki, V., Avramopoulos, D.. 2022-06-16. Insights for disease modeling from single cell transcriptomics of iPSC-derived neurons and astrocytes across differentiation time and co-culture. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.15.495952

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related preprints

bioRxiv2026

Pangenome Discoveries from Clinical Long-Read Genomes in Underrepresented Populations with Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Genetic diagnoses remain elusive for many individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), and the gap is wider in populations poorly represented in genomic reference resources. To demonstrate the equitable advantage of long-read whole genome sequencing (LR-WGS) and pangenomes in terms of clinical utility, we analyzed 211 NDD cases and 107 unaffected relatives from 24 populations, integrating their assemblies, resulting in a total of 1204 haplotypes with the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium Release 2 (HPRC_r2) and the Arab Pangenome Reference (APR) datasets. Clinical interpretation of small variants and structural variants (SVs) revealed pathogenic or likely pathogenic findings in 38.9% of the cases (82/211), and our workflow further detected pathogenic repeat expansions in 3.8% of the cases and runs of homozygosity (ROHs) exceeding 300 Mb in 4.7% of the cases, revealing substantial autozygosity suggestive of strong inbreeding. Beyond these clinical assessments, pangenome analysis revealed 3.9 million population-level novel small variants, 39,782 SVs and an average of 2.17 Mb of novel sequence per individual absent from linear references and global pangenomes. We identified 85.9 kb of case-unique nonreference sequences in exonic segments overlapping with curated NDD gene sets. Graph-based tertiary analysis further identified rare exonic complex homozygous rearrangements in the NDD associated genes for 2.4% of the cases. Together, these findings emphasize how diverse genome assemblies extend variant discovery beyond established linear reference-based clinical interpretation.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2026

Integrated exome-transcriptome analysis of a schizophrenia case with an exceptionally low polygenic risk score

Schizophrenia liability reflects both common polygenic variation and rarer variants of larger effect. We investigated a post-mortem schizophrenia case (SZ07) with a schizophrenia polygenic risk score below the first percentile among ancestry-matched cases, asking whether individual-level genomic and transcriptomic analyses could help identify potentially novel schizophrenia-relevant variants. We used exome analysis with multiple variant-prediction tools to generate a panel of variants and corresponding candidate genes potentially implicated in the pathological process in SZ07. The prioritised variants were then assessed using RNA sequencing of three cortical regions. Of these, only an IZUMO4 splice-acceptor variant showed direct RNA-level support. Beyond variant-specific analyses, we characterised broader transcriptomic abnormalities in the SZ07 brain. Pathway analysis of gene-level expression deviations implicated innate immune processes, calcium signalling, synaptic biology, and axon remodelling. Notably, compared with conventional single-sample biological pathway analysis, the analysis we used showed only a weak association with neuronal specificity, suggesting their reduced sensitivity to the main axis of variation related to cellular composition in bulk brain tissue gene expression data. Although the candidate genes showed no significant pathway-level convergence, the broader transcriptomic profile revealed coherent biological alterations largely compatible with the documented history of cerebrovascular disease in SZ07. These results demonstrate how the integration of exome and transcriptome data at the individual level enables the formulation and constraint of hypotheses regarding patient-specific genetic features and their molecular consequences, while highlighting important limitations related to tissue composition, comorbidity, and the choice of reference cohort.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2026

A genetic screen to identify host factors required for commensal bacterial adherence to the gut epithelia

Bacterial adherence to gut epithelial cells likely involves host genetic components. We isolated a gut commensal bacterium, Lelliottia jeotgali, that can robustly colonize C. elegans through attachment to intestinal epithelial cells. Here, we developed a novel screen in C. elegans to identify host genes required for microbiome bacterial colonization. Using transgenic L. jeotgali strain expressing tdTomato, we conducted forward genetic screens in C. elegans to select for mutants that completely lost colonization. We identified multiple allelic mutations in five different C. elegans genes, termed knockout of Lelliottia adherence (kola) mutants, with a near complete loss of adherence. Each of kola-1-5 is uncharacterized and predicted to encode for a secreted or membrane-bound protein. We also identified gly-5, a GalNAc transferase that initiates O-linked glycosylation. Overall, we describe the first C. elegans screen to identify host factors that control microbiome bacterial colonization in the gut.

genetics↗