Mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.), the smallest (~50g) and fastest developing (2 months of gestation) nonhuman primates in the world, are emerging as a new model organism for studying primate-specific physiology and diseases. Although a mouse lemur reference genome sequence is already available, little is known about the cellular and molecular biology of this animal. In Nature, a team of more than 150 international experts unveils a cell atlas for the adult mouse lemur. Using single-cell RNA sequencing, the Tabula Microcebus team profiled 226,000 cells from 27 mouse lemur organs and tissues collected from four grey mouse lemurs > 9 years old that had to be euthanized for humane reasons owing to declining health. Using that data, the team identified >750 lemur molecular cell types and characterized their full gene expression profile. By comparing the lemur transcriptomes to those of human and mouse, the team identified several cell types and genes for which the mouse lemur provides a better human model than the mouse. Data can be explored using the Tabula Microcebus portal (https://tabula-microcebus.sf.czbiohub.org).
Original reference: The Tabula Microcebus Consortium., Ezran, C., Liu, S. et al. Nature 644, 173–184 (2025)
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