Laurie Nemoz-Billet, Martial Balland, Laurent Gilquin, Benjamin Gillet, Isabelle Stévant, Emilie Guillon, Sandrine Hughes, Gilles Carpentier, Elisabeth Vaganay, Frédéric Sohm, Vladimir Misiak, Mary-Julieth Gonzalez-Melo, Manuel Koch, Yad Ghavi-Helm, Sandrine Bretaud, Florence Ruggiero
During development, motor axons are guided toward muscle target by various extrinsic cues including extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins whose identities and cellular source remain poorly characterized. Here, using single-cell RNAseq of sorted GFP+ cells from smyhc1:gfp -injected zebrafish embryos, we unravel the slow muscle progenitors (SMP) pseudotemporal trajectory at the single-cell level and show that differentiating SMPs are a major source of ECM proteins. The SMP core-matrisome was characterized and computationally predicted to form a basement membrane-like structure tailored for motor axon guidance, including basement membrane-associated ECM proteins, as collagen XV-B, one of the earliest core-matrisome gene transcribed in differentiating SMPs and the glycoprotein Tenascin C...
March 26, 2024: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America