Lung development is a complicated and delicate process, facilitated by spatially and temporarily coordinated crosstalk of up to 40 cell types. Developmental origin and heterogeneity of lung cell lineages in context of lung development have been a focus of research efforts for decades. Bulk RNA and protein measurements, RNA and protein labelling, and lineage tracing techniques have been traditionally employed. However, the complex and heterogeneous nature of lung tissue presents a particular challenge when identifying subtle changes in gene expression in individual cell types. Rapidly developing single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) techniques allow for unbiased and robust assessment of complex cellular dynamics during biological processes in unprecedented ways. Discovered a decade ago, scRNA-seq has been applied in respiratory research to understand lung cellular composition and to identify novel cell types. Still, very few studies to date have addressed the single-cell transcriptome in healthy or aberrantly developing lung. In this mini-review, we discuss principal discoveries with scRNA-seq in the field of prenatal and postnatal lung development. In addition, we examine challenges and expectations, and propose future steps associated with the use of scRNA-seq to study developmental lung diseases.

中文翻译：

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从单细胞分辨率看发育中的肺

肺部发育是一个复杂而微妙的过程，在空间上和暂时协调的多达40种细胞类型的串扰下得以促进。几十年来，在肺发育的背景下，肺细胞谱系的发育起源和异质性一直是研究工作的重点。传统上已使用大体积RNA和蛋白质测量，RNA和蛋白质标记以及谱系追踪技术。然而，当鉴定单个细胞类型中基因表达的细微变化时，肺组织的复杂性和异质性提出了一个特殊的挑战。快速发展的单细胞RNA测序（scRNA-seq）技术允许以前所未有的方式对生物过程中的复杂细胞动力学进行无偏且强大的评估。十年前发现 scRNA-seq已用于呼吸研究，以了解肺细胞组成并鉴定新型细胞类型。但是，迄今为止，很少有研究针对健康或异常发育的肺中的单细胞转录组。在本小型综述中，我们讨论了scRNA-seq在产前和产后肺发育领域的主要发现。此外，我们研究了挑战和期望，并提出了与使用scRNA-seq研究发育性肺部疾病相关的未来步骤。