The properties and number of neural stem cells (NSCs) in neural tissue are important issues for the regenerative capacity of the spinal cord in different organisms or developmental stages. In this study, we investigated the self-renewal and differentiation potential of NSCs from adult spinal cords of adult geckos (Gecko japonicus) and mice. The sphere forming ratio of mouse NSCs was higher than that of gecko NSCs, and the sphere forming time of mouse NSCs was shorter as well. In addition, serum-induced differentiation of NSCs gave rise to more β-tubulin III (TUBB3)-positive progeny in geckos, whereas NSCs gave rise to more glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-positive cells in mice. We further conducted single sphere RNA-seq for both gecko and mouse NSCs, and transcriptome data revealed that purified NSC populations form either geckos or mice are heterogeneous and stay at various differentiated stages even with similar appearance. Mouse NSCs expressed more glial markers and gecko NSCs expressed more neuronal markers, which is consistent with cell fate determination of mouse and gecko NSCs in differentiation assays.

中文翻译：

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成年壁虎和小鼠脊髓神经干/祖细胞的比较。

神经组织中神经干细胞（NSC）的性质和数量是脊髓在不同生物体或发育阶段的再生能力的重要问题。在这项研究中，我们调查了成年壁虎（Gecko japonicus）和小鼠的成年脊髓中NSC的自我更新和分化潜能。小鼠NSC的成球率高于壁虎NSC，小鼠NSC的成球时间也更短。此外，血清诱导的NSC分化在壁虎中产生更多的β-微管蛋白III（TUBB3）阳性子代，而NSC在小鼠中产生更多的胶质原纤维酸性蛋白（GFAP）阳性细胞。我们进一步对壁虎和小鼠NSC进行了单球RNA测序，转录组数据和转录组数据显示，无论是壁虎还是小鼠，纯化的NSC种群都是异质的，即使外观相似，也处于不同的分化阶段。小鼠神经干细胞表达更多的神经胶质标志物，壁虎神经干细胞表达更多的神经元标志物，这与分化试验中小鼠和壁虎神经干细胞的细胞命运测定是一致的。