Characterization of hormone-producing cell types in the teleost pituitary gland using single-cell RNA-seq

Abstract

The pituitary is the vertebrate endocrine gland responsible for the production and secretion of several essential peptide hormones. These, in turn, control many aspects of an animal's physiology and development, including growth, reproduction, homeostasis, metabolism and stress responses. In teleost fish, each hormone is presumably produced by a specific cell type. However, key details on the regulation of, and communication between these cell types remain to be resolved. We have therefore used single-cell sequencing to generate gene expression profiles for 2592 and 3804 individual cells from the pituitaries of female and male adult medaka (Oryzias latipes), respectively. Based on expression profile clustering, we define 15 and 16 distinct cell types in the female and male pituitary, respectively, of which ten are involved in the production of a single peptide hormone. Collectively, our data provide a high-quality reference for studies on pituitary biology and the regulation of hormone production, both in fish and in vertebrates in general.

Integrative transcriptomics reveals ectopic lipid homeostasis mechanisms in non-endocrine cells of the teleost pituitary

“…We have recently described a single-cell transcriptomics (scRNA-seq) dataset 3 on the medaka pituitary gland (figure 7a). These data comprise shallow transcriptomic profiles for 6396 cells (2592 female, 3804 male) derived from mature animals.…”

“…Over the lifespan of an animal, the pituitary gland exhibits a high degree of developmental plasticity, allowing the proliferation or reduction of specific cell types to meet changing demands 2 . Distinct cell types are responsible for the production and secretion of at least eight different peptide hormones 1,3 . Sexual maturation, for instance, is controlled by pituitary gonadotrope cells producing follicle-stimulating and luteinizing hormones (Fsh and Lh, respectively).…”

3D atlas of the pituitary gland of the model fish medaka

“…We have recently used scRNA-seq to identify and characterize seven endocrine cell types in the teleost model organism medaka (31). Although a 3D atlas of the pituitary gland development has been previously described in zebrafish (38), the present atlas is the first 3D atlas of all pituitary endocrine cell populations in a teleost fish.…”

“…Using scRNA-seq technology, multi-hormonal cells have for instance been described in the mouse pituitary (72). However, using similar approaches, pituitary multi-hormonal cells have not been reported in teleosts (31,73), although some studies have documented cells producing more than one hormone in the teleost pituitary (8)(9)(10)(11).…”

“…The Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) is a teleost model commonly used to investigate vertebrate and teleost physiology, genetics, and development, due to easy access to a wide range of genetic and molecular techniques (29,30). We have recently used single-cell RNA sequencing to describe seven distinct endocrine cell types (expressing prl, pomca, fshb, lhb, tshba, gh, and sl) in the medaka pituitary (31). Here, we extend this study by describing differences present in the spatial distribution of the seven endocrine cell populations, in juvenile and adult fish from both sexes.…”