They barely weigh 50 grams (.11 pounds) and are among the smallest primates. But it is not their eyes as round as marbles, their large ears or their distinctive tails that led an international team of researchers to focus on the genome of gray mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus). Historically, they have been closer to humans in species development, which is why scientists have studied their potential as laboratory models.
By examining 27 organs – including the liver, auditory system, blood and heart – from four individuals euthanized due to incurable diseases, the researchers cataloged 226,000 cells in an atlas published in Nature on July 30. To accomplish this, they used single-cell RNA sequencing, a process in which each cell is isolated so its genetic material can be extracted and the genes it expresses identified using RNA. This RNA, transcribed from DNA, assigns the cell its unique function – pulmonary, cardiac, immune and so on.
After identifying the cell types of these small lemurs native to Madagascar, the next challenge was to determine which were shared with other species. The researchers compared the RNA with that of human, mouse and macaque cells, analyzing more than 60 cell types and thus discovering mechanisms common to both humans and lemurs that sometimes differ in mice. “In the future, we hope to compare every cell type in the body across many more species; however currently, similar large high-quality datasets are missing for most species,” said Camille Ezran, a researcher in the Department of Biochemistry at Stanford University and lead author of the study.
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