Brain Development, Regeneration-Related Cells Identified in Axolotl Salamander

A team from BGI, the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other centers shares findings from a "spatial enhanced resolution omics sequencing" (Stereo-seq)-based analysis of individual cells isolated from the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) brain, focusing on a group of ependymoglial progenitor cells that appear to contribute to brain development and/or brain regeneration in response to injury. Based on single-cell Stereo-seq data for cells collected from the axolotl brain left telencephalon at more than half a dozen developmental stages or at seven regenerative stages after a chunk of lateral pallium region tissue was removed, the team highlighted almost three dozen cell types, including 28 regeneration-related cell types. "When comparing cellular and molecular dynamics of the axolotl telencephalon between development and regeneration, we found that injury-induced ependymoglial cells were similar to development-specific ependymoglial cells in terms of their transcriptome state," the authors report, adding that "regeneration of the axolotl telencephalon exhibited neurogenesis patterns similar to those seen in development in molecular cascades and the potential cell lineage transition, which suggests that brain regeneration partially recapitulates the development process."