Format: ORAL

Xun Xu

BGI Research, Beijing, China

Dissecting the delicate and complex plant tissues and cell types in single-cell resolution facilitates us to discover plant developmental mechanisms and how plants respond to various environmental stimuli. Based on the developed Stereo-seq technology and plant cell wall staining, we developed the scStereo-seq (Single-cell SpaTial Enhanced REsolution Omics-sequencing) technique that enabled us to show the in situ spatial transcriptome profiles in various plant tissues at the real single-cell resolution. By analyzing Arabidopsis leaves, we successfully distinguished cell sub-types that show subtle but significant transcriptomic differences, including the upper epidermis and lower epidermis, spongy mesophyll and palisade mesophyll. We also discovered cell-type-specific gene expression gradients from the main vein to the leaf edge for the first time. Furthermore, we managed to apply scStereo-seq in various plants and tissues. For example, the spatiotemporal developmental atlas of nodules enabled us to reveal the new function of stress-related genes in regulating nitrogen fixation, and the most refined spatiotemporal atlas of Arabidopsis seed facilitated us to define the subtype of endosperm cells generated by differentiation during germination. Altogether, these findings show the crucial role of scStereo-seq in discovering new cell types and exploring their spatiotemporal cell-fate transition characteristics, and scStereo-seq will significantly advance our understanding of plant morphogenesis, plant-microbe interactions, and stress tolerance mechanisms in the future.