Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Waldhaus, Jörg
• Durruthy-Durruthy, Robert
• Heller, Stefan

Titel

Quantitative High-Resolution Cellular Map of the Organ of Corti

Ist Teil von

• Cell reports (Cambridge), 2015-06, Vol.11 (9), p.1385-1399

Ort / Verlag

United States: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2015

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek - Frei zugängliche E-Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The organ of Corti harbors highly specialized sensory hair cells and surrounding supporting cells that are essential for the sense of hearing. Here, we report a single cell gene expression data analysis and visualization strategy that allows for the construction of a quantitative spatial map of the neonatal organ of Corti along its major anatomical axes. The map displays gene expression levels of 192 genes for all organ of Corti cell types ordered along the apex-to-base axis of the cochlea. Statistical interrogation of cell-type-specific gene expression patterns along the longitudinal gradient revealed features of apical supporting cells indicative of a propensity for proliferative hair cell regeneration. This includes reduced expression of Notch effectors, receptivity for canonical Wnt signaling, and prominent expression of early cell-cycle genes. Cochlear hair cells displayed expression gradients of genes indicative of cellular differentiation and the establishment of the tonotopic axis. [Display omitted] •Unbiased clustering of single organ of Corti cells based on gene expression data•Clusters correspond to nine major medial-to-lateral aligned organ of Corti cell types•Spatial reconstruction of apex-to-base localization of each organ of Corti cell•Statistical analysis reveals changes in gene expression along the tonotopic axis Waldhaus et al. reconstruct a spatial 2D map of the organ of Corti from single cell gene expression profiles. Statistical interrogation of cell-type-specific gene expression along the map reveals expression gradients and provides a tool to integrate functional data with complex gene expression patterns.