Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Single-cell transcriptomics of the naked molerat reveals unexpected features of mammalian immunity
PLoS Biology, Volume 17, No. 11, Article e3000528, Year 2019
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
The immune system comprises a complex network of specialized cells that protects against infection, eliminates cancerous cells, and regulates tissue repair, thus serving a critical role in homeostasis, health span, and life span. The subterranean-dwelling naked mole-rat (NMR; Heterocephalus glaber) exhibits prolonged life span relative to its body size, is unusually cancer resistant, and manifests few physiological or molecular changes with advancing age. We therefore hypothesized that the immune system of NM-Rs evolved unique features that confer enhanced cancer immunosurveillance and prevent the age-associated decline in homeostasis. Using single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) we mapped the immune system of the NM-R and compared it to that of the short-lived, cancer-prone mouse. In contrast to the mouse, we find that the NM-R immune system is characterized by a high myeloid-tolymphoid cell ratio that includes a novel, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-responsive, granulocyte cell subset. Surprisingly, we also find that NM-Rs lack canonical natural killer (NK) cells. Our comparative genomics analyses support this finding, showing that the NM-R genome lacks an expanded gene family that controls NK cell function in several other species. Furthermore, we reconstructed the evolutionary history that likely led to this genomic state. The NM-R thus challenges our current understanding of mammalian immunity, favoring an atypical, myeloid-biased mode of innate immunosurveillance, which may contribute to its remarkable health span. © 2019 Hilton et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s001.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s002.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s003.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s004.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s005.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s006.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s007.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s008.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s009.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s010.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s011.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s012.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s013.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s014.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s015.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s016.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s017.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s018.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s019.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s020.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s021.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s022.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s023.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s024.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s025.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s026.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s027.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s028.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s029.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s030.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s031.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s032.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s033.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s034.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s035.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s036.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s037.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s038.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s039.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s040.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s041.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s042.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s043.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s044.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s045.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s046.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s047.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s048.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s049.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s050.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s051.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s052.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s053.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s054.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s055.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s056.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s057.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s058.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s059.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s060.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s061.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s062.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s063.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s064.csv
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC6894886/bin/pbio.3000528.s065.docx
Authors & Co-Authors
Hilton, Hugo G.
United States, San Francisco
Calico Llc
Fong, Nicole L.
United States, San Francisco
Calico Llc
Smith, Megan
United States, San Francisco
Calico Llc
Imai, Denise M.
United States, Davis
University of California, Davis
Jojic, Vladimir
United States, San Francisco
Calico Llc
Buffenstein, Rochelle B.
United States, San Francisco
Calico Llc
Statistics
Citations: 60
Authors: 6
Affiliations: 2
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1371/journal.pbio.3000528
ISSN:
15449173
Research Areas
Cancer
Genetics And Genomics
Health System And Policy