A spatially resolved single cell atlas of human gastrulation

Abstract

Gastrulation is the fundamental process during the embryogenesis of all multicellular animals through which the basic body plan is first laid down. It is pivotal in generating cellular diversity coordinated with spatial patterning. Gastrulation in humans occurs in the third week following fertilization. Our understanding of this process in humans is extremely limited, and based almost entirely on experimental models. Here, we characterize in a spatially resolved manner the single cell transcriptional profile of an entire gastrulating human embryo approximately 16 to 19 days after fertilization. We used these data to provide the first unequivocal demonstration that human embryonic stem cells represent the early post implantation epiblast. We identified both primordial germ cells and red blood cells, which had never been characterized so early during human development. Comparison with mouse gastrula transcriptomes revealed many commonalities between the human and mouse but also several key differences, particularly in FGF signaling, that we validated experimentally. This unique dataset offers a unique glimpse into a central but generally inaccessible stage of our development, provides new context for interpreting experiments in other model systems and represents a valuable resource for guiding directed differentiation of human cells in vitro.