RNA splicing programs define tissue compartments and cell types at single-cell resolution.

Olivieri, Julia Eve; Dehghannasiri, Roozbeh; Wang, Peter L; Jang, SoRi; de Morree, Antoine; Tan, Serena Y; Ming, Jingsi; Ruohao Wu, Angela et al. · Elife · 2021

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The extent splicing is regulated at single-cell resolution has remained controversial due to both available data and methods to interpret it. We apply the SpliZ, a new statistical approach, to detect cell-type-specific splicing in >110K cells from 12 human tissues. Using 10X Chromium data for discovery, 9.1% of genes with computable SpliZ scores are cell-type-specifically spliced, including ubiquitously expressed genes <i>MYL6</i> and <i>RPS24</i>. These results are validated with RNA FISH, single-cell PCR, and Smart-seq2. SpliZ analysis reveals 170 genes with regulated splicing during human spermatogenesis, including examples conserved in mouse and mouse lemur. The SpliZ allows model-based identification of subpopulations indistinguishable based on gene expression, illustrated by subpopulation-specific splicing of classical monocytes involving an ultraconserved exon in <i>SAT1</i>. Together, this analysis of differential splicing across multiple organs establishes that splicing is regulated cell-type-specifically.

Medical subject headings