Single Cells Make Seashells on the Seashore: using scRNAseq to uncover the role of haemocytes in molluscan biomineralization

软体动物是如何建造它们的壳的？贝类养殖者想要培育出具有坚固外壳的抗病动物，气候变化科学家担心钙化物在更温暖、更酸性的海洋中的命运，生物技术行业从贝壳中挖掘出具有生物活性的化合物和材料特性。尽管有数百年的科学好奇，但我们对贝壳生产的细胞基础的理解是不完整的。2004年，人们假设免疫细胞，也就是血细胞，会产生细胞内的钙晶体，并将其沉积在外壳上。最近，转录组和蛋白质组学等方法显示，血细胞具有可能表明生物矿化功能的分子特征。但对软体动物免疫细胞发育(造血)的完整描述和确认其在生物矿化中的作用的功能测试仍然缺乏。这个项目将解决的广泛问题是：被称为血细胞的免疫细胞是否参与软体动物贝壳的分泌？为了将血细胞在生物矿化中的潜在作用从它们在免疫中的已知功能中解脱出来，该项目将在两个软体动物模型系统中使用尖端技术单细胞RNA测序：Crepidula forNicata和Crassostrea gias。该项目将询问scRNAseq数据集，以揭示导致血细胞产生的细胞谱系和发育事件，然后进行实验以经验性地测试它们的功能。

How do molluscs build their shells? Shellfish farmers want to grow disease-resistant animals with strong shells, climate change scientists are concerned about the fate of calcifiers in warmer more acidic oceans, and biotechnology industries mine shells for bioactive compounds and material properties. Despite hundreds of years of scientific curiosity, our understanding on the cellular basis of seashell production is incomplete. In 2004, it was hypothesised that immune cells, called haemocytes, make intracellular calcium crystals and deposit them onto the shell. More recently, methods such as transcriptomics and proteomics revealed haemocytes have a molecular signature that could indicate biomineralisation functions. But a complete molluscan immune cell development (haematopoiesis) description and functional tests to confirm roles in biomineralisation are still lacking. The broad question this project will address is: do immune cells, called haemocytes, participate in mollusc shell secretion? To disentangle the potential role of haemocytes in biomineralization, from their known functions in immunity, the project will use the cutting-edge technique single-cell RNA-sequencing, in two mollusc model systems: Crepidula fornicata and Crassostrea gigas. The project will interrogate scRNAseq datasets to uncover the cell lineage and developmental events that give rise to haemocytes before conducting experiments to empirically test their function.