Neuronal identities derived by misexpression of the POU IV sensory determinant in a protovertebrate. Author Prakriti Chacha, Ryoko Horie, Takehiro Kusakabe, Yasunori Sasakura, Mona Singh, Takeo Horie, Michael Levine Publication Year 2022 Type Journal Article Abstract The protovertebrate type A (sometimes called ) contains a series of sensory cell types distributed across the head-tail axis of swimming tadpoles. They arise from lateral regions of the neural plate that exhibit properties of vertebrate placodes and neural crest. The sensory determinant is known to work in concert with regional determinants, such as and , to produce palp sensory cells (PSCs) and bipolar tail neurons (BTNs), in head and tail regions, respectively. A combination of single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) assays, computational analysis, and experimental manipulations suggests that misexpression of results in variable transformations of epidermal cells into hybrid sensory cell types, including those exhibiting properties of both PSCs and BTNs. Hybrid properties are due to coexpression of and that is triggered by an unexpected feedback loop. Hybrid cells were also found to express a synthetic gene battery that is not coexpressed in any known cell type. We discuss these results with respect to the opportunities and challenges of reprogramming cell types through the targeted misexpression of cellular determinants. Keywords Animals, Transcription Factors, Biological Evolution, Gene Expression, Neurons, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Single-Cell Analysis, Ciona intestinalis, Neural Crest, Epidermis, Gene Regulatory Networks, Vertebrates, Cellular Reprogramming, Neural Plate, POU Domain Factors Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Volume 119 Issue 4 Date Published 2022 Jan 25 ISSN Number 1091-6490 DOI 10.1073/pnas.2118817119 Alternate Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A PMCID PMC8794889 PMID 35042818 PubMedPubMed CentralGoogle ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML