Single Cell Sequencing of the Pineal Gland: The Next Chapter

Steven L Coon; Cong Fu; Steven W Hartley; Lynne Holtzclaw; Joseph C Mays; Michael C Kelly; Matthew W Kelley; James C Mullikin; Martin F Rath; Luis E Savastano; David C Klein

doi:10.3389/fendo.2019.00590

Single Cell Sequencing of the Pineal Gland: The Next Chapter

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2019 Sep 20:10:590. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2019.00590. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Steven L Coon¹, Cong Fu^{2

3}, Steven W Hartley⁴, Lynne Holtzclaw⁵, Joseph C Mays⁶, Michael C Kelly⁷, Matthew W Kelley⁸, James C Mullikin⁹, Martin F Rath¹⁰, Luis E Savastano¹¹, David C Klein¹²

Affiliations

¹ Molecular Genomics Core, Office of the Scientific Director, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
² Key Laboratory of Organ Regeneration & Transplantation of the Ministry of Education, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
³ National-Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Animal Models for Human Diseases, Changchun, China.
⁴ Comparative Genomics Analysis Unit, Cancer Genetics and Comparative Genomics Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
⁵ Microscopy and Imaging Core, Office of the Scientific Director, Intramural Research Program, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
⁶ Institute on Systems Genetics, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States.
⁷ Single Cell Analysis Facility, Frederick National Lab for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
⁸ Section on Developmental Neuroscience, Laboratory of Cochlear Development, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
⁹ National Institutes of Health Intramural Sequencing Center, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, United States.
¹⁰ Department of Neuroscience, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
¹¹ Department of Neurosurgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
¹² Office of the Scientific Director, Intramural Research Program, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.

Abstract

The analysis of pineal cell biology has undergone remarkable development as techniques have become available which allow for sequencing of entire transcriptomes and, most recently, the sequencing of the transcriptome of individual cells. Identification of at least nine distinct cell types in the rat pineal gland has been made possible, allowing identification of the precise cells of origin and expression of transcripts for the first time. Here the history and current state of knowledge generated by these transcriptomic efforts is reviewed, with emphasis on the insights suggested by the findings.

Keywords: adrenergic; melatonin; pineal; single cell sequencing; transcriptome profiling; transcriptomics.

Publication types

Review