TY - JOUR T1 - Single-cell transcriptomics of the mouse gonadal soma reveals the establishment of sexual dimorphism in distinct cell lineages JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/410407 SP - 410407 AU - Isabelle Stévant AU - Françoise Kühne AU - Andy Greenfield AU - Marie-Christine Chaboissier AU - Emmanouil T. Dermitzakis AU - Serge Nef Y1 - 2018/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/09/07/410407.abstract N2 - Sex determination is a unique process that allows the study of multipotent progenitors and their acquisition of sex-specific fates during differentiation of the gonad into a testis or an ovary. Using time-series single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) on ovarian Nr5a1-GFP+ somatic cells during sex determination, we identified a single population of early progenitors giving rise to both pre-granulosa cells and potential steroidogenic precursor cells. By comparing time-series scRNA-seq of XX and XY somatic cells, we demonstrate that the supporting cells emerge from the early progenitors with a non-sex-specific transcriptomic program, before pre-granulosa and Sertoli cells acquire their sex-specific identity. In XX and XY steroidogenic precursors similar transcriptomic profiles underlie the acquisition of cell fate, but with a delay in XX cells. Our data provide a novel framework, at single-cell resolution, for further interrogation of the molecular and cellular basis of mammalian sex determination. ER -