Fig. 2: Differential gene expression in human vestibular hair cells and supporting cells. | Nature Communications

Fig. 2: Differential gene expression in human vestibular hair cells and supporting cells.

From: Single-cell transcriptomic atlas reveals increased regeneration in diseased human inner ear balance organs

Fig. 2

a Schematic of utricle sensory epithelium highlighting hair cells (blue) and supporting cells (brown). b SWNE plot colored by hair cell and supporting cell groups with the hair cell precursor group (gray) excluded. c Volcano plot with enriched hair cell versus supporting cell genes using pseudobulk DESeq2 analysis. The top 5 differentially expressed genes are labeled as well as validated markers (red triangles). Using a log2 threshold of 2 and FDR < 0.01, 1259 genes were enriched in the supporting cells and 1251 in the hair cells (listed in the Source Data file). d, e Violin plots depicting 12 highly enriched hair cell (d) and supporting cell genes (e) using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. f–g’ Validation of the hair cell marker SYT14 (cyan) and supporting cell marker ANXA2 (red) in utricles from organ donor and vestibular schwannoma patients. Cryosections were processed for fluorescent in situ hybridization and immunostaining for MYO7A (green), GFAP (gray), and DAPI (blue). Yellow dashed lines mark the basement membrane of the sensory epithelium. SYT14 is expressed in MYO7A+ hair cells in (f’) and ANXA2 is expressed in the cytoplasm of GFAP+ supporting cells in (f”) in OD. f”’ Cartoon depicting the expression pattern of SYT14 (perinuclear cytoplasm) and ANXA2 (apical cytoplasm) in hair cells and supporting cells, respectively. Boxed area is magnified in individual panels in (f””). Maroon dashed lines outline the MYO7A+/GFAP− hair cells expressing SYT14. Yellow dashed lines outline the MYO7A−/GFAP+ supporting cells expressing ANXA2. g, g’ SYT14 marks hair cells and ANXA2 supporting cells in vestibular schwannoma utricle, which is notably disorganized with loss of hair cells. h SWNE plots displaying enrichment of ANXA2 in supporting cells and SYT14 in hair cells. Log2 expression is shown with 0 in white and maximum in red at the indicated thresholds. Merged color SWNE plot demonstrates minimal overlap between these marker genes. Scale bar = 25 µm in (f–f”, g, g’) 10 µm in (f””). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

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