Astrocyte heterogeneity reveals region-specific astrogenesis in the white matter
Astrocyte heterogeneity has been well explored, but our understanding of white matter (WM) astrocytes and their distinctions from grey matter (GM) astrocytes remains limited. Here, we compared astrocytes from cortical GM and WM/corpus callosum (WM/CC) using single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) and spatial transcriptomics of the murine forebrain. The comparison revealed similarities, but also significant differences between WM and GM astrocytes, including cytoskeletal and metabolic hallmarks specific to WM astrocytes with molecular properties also shared with human WM astrocytes. When comparing murine astrocytes from two different WM regions, cortex and cerebellum, we found that they exhibit distinct, region-specific molecular properties, with the cerebellum lacking for example a specific cluster of WM astrocytes expressing progenitor and proliferation genes. Functional experiments confirmed astrocyte proliferation in WM/CC, but not cerebellar WM, suggesting that the WM/CC may be a source of continued astrogenesis.
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Cell information vs gene expression on reduced dimensions
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Cell information vs cell information on dimension reduction
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Gene expression vs gene expression on dimension reduction
In this tab, users can visualise two gene expressions side-by-side on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Coexpression of two genes on reduced dimensions
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Cell information / gene expression violin plot / box plot
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Cell information vs gene expression on reduced dimensions
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Cell information vs cell information on dimension reduction
In this tab, users can visualise two cell informations side-by-side on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Gene expression vs gene expression on dimension reduction
In this tab, users can visualise two gene expressions side-by-side on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Coexpression of two genes on reduced dimensions
In this tab, users can visualise the coexpression of two genes on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Cell information / gene expression violin plot / box plot
In this tab, users can visualise the gene expression or continuous cell information (e.g. Number of UMIs / module score) across groups of cells (e.g. libary / clusters).Gene expression bubbleplot / heatmap
In this tab, users can visualise the gene expression patterns of multiple genes grouped by categorical cell information (e.g. library / cluster).The normalised expression are averaged, log-transformed and then plotted.
Cell information vs gene expression on reduced dimensions
In this tab, users can visualise both cell information and gene expression side-by-side on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Cell information vs cell information on dimension reduction
In this tab, users can visualise two cell informations side-by-side on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Gene expression vs gene expression on dimension reduction
In this tab, users can visualise two gene expressions side-by-side on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Coexpression of two genes on reduced dimensions
In this tab, users can visualise the coexpression of two genes on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Cell information / gene expression violin plot / box plot
In this tab, users can visualise the gene expression or continuous cell information (e.g. Number of UMIs / module score) across groups of cells (e.g. libary / clusters).Gene expression bubbleplot / heatmap
In this tab, users can visualise the gene expression patterns of multiple genes grouped by categorical cell information (e.g. library / cluster).The normalised expression are averaged, log-transformed and then plotted.
Cell information vs gene expression on reduced dimensions
In this tab, users can visualise both cell information and gene expression side-by-side on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Cell information vs cell information on dimension reduction
In this tab, users can visualise two cell informations side-by-side on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Gene expression vs gene expression on dimension reduction
In this tab, users can visualise two gene expressions side-by-side on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Coexpression of two genes on reduced dimensions
In this tab, users can visualise the coexpression of two genes on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Cell information / gene expression violin plot / box plot
In this tab, users can visualise the gene expression or continuous cell information (e.g. Number of UMIs / module score) across groups of cells (e.g. libary / clusters).Gene expression bubbleplot / heatmap
In this tab, users can visualise the gene expression patterns of multiple genes grouped by categorical cell information (e.g. library / cluster).The normalised expression are averaged, log-transformed and then plotted.
Cell information vs gene expression on reduced dimensions
In this tab, users can visualise both cell information and gene expression side-by-side on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Cell information vs cell information on dimension reduction
In this tab, users can visualise two cell informations side-by-side on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Gene expression vs gene expression on dimension reduction
In this tab, users can visualise two gene expressions side-by-side on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Coexpression of two genes on reduced dimensions
In this tab, users can visualise the coexpression of two genes on low-dimensional representions.Dimension Reduction
Cell information / gene expression violin plot / box plot
In this tab, users can visualise the gene expression or continuous cell information (e.g. Number of UMIs / module score) across groups of cells (e.g. libary / clusters).Gene expression bubbleplot / heatmap
In this tab, users can visualise the gene expression patterns of multiple genes grouped by categorical cell information (e.g. library / cluster).The normalised expression are averaged, log-transformed and then plotted.
Reference: Bocchi, R., Thorwirth, M., Simon-Ebert, T., Koupourtidou, C., Clavreul, S., Kolf, K., Della Vecchia, P., Bottes, S., Jessberger, S., Zhou, J., Wani, G., Pilz, G.-A., Ninkovic, J., Buffo, A., Sirko, S., Götz, M. & Fischer-Sternjak, J.; Nature Neuroscience (2025). doi: 10.1038/s41593-025-01878-6 [Link]
Link to the laboratory webpages: Gotz Lab and Bocchi Lab
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*The picture above was provided by Manja Thorwirth and edited using photo editor Befunky