First Whole-Body Single-Cell Atlas of Adult Vertebrate Generated in Danionella cerebrum

Whitehead Institute researchers have created the first comprehensive whole-body single-cell atlas of an adult vertebrate, the tiny, transparent teleost fish Danionella cerebrum .

The team profiled more than 600,000 cells from across the fish to build the whole-body single-cell transcriptome atlas of which genes are active in which cell. A cell’s transcriptome is the full set of RNA molecules it has made from its DNA at a given time, providing a snapshot of which genes the cell is using.

Together, the data provide a molecular reference for the cell types found throughout Danionella , the patterns of gene activity that distinguish them, and where many of them are located. Offering a new resource for studying brain regeneration, cellular diversity, and investigating how different tissues function together, the atlas gives researchers a baseline for exploring how injury, aging, drugs, or other changes affect cells across the whole animal.