Majd M. Ariss, Abul B.M.M.K. Islam, Meg Critcher, Maria Paula Zappia, and Maxim V Frolov.  

Single cell RNA-sequencing reveals a metabolic aspect of apoptosis in Rbf mutant.     

The function of Retinoblastoma tumor suppressor (RB) is influenced by the cellular context, therefore the consequences of RB inactivation are cell-type-specific. We employ single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) to profile the impact of an Rbf mutation during Drosophila eye development. We combined a scRNA-seq datasets of 5,591 wild type cells and 5,203 Rbf mutant cells to map a cell landscape of Rbf mutant and identified a mutant-specific cell population that shows intracellular acidification due to increase in glycolytic activity. Such metabolic changes, restricted to this unique Rbf mutant population, sensitize cells to apoptosis and define the pattern of cell death in Rbf mutant eye disc. Thus, these results illustrate how scRNA-seq can be applied to dissect mutant phenotypes.

Contact: mfrolov@uic.edu