Cell systemsPub Date : 2025-02-19Epub Date: 2025-01-17DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.008
Benjamin A Doran, Robert Y Chen, Hannah Giba, Vivek Behera, Bidisha Barat, Anitha Sundararajan, Huaiying Lin, Ashley Sidebottom, Eric G Pamer, Arjun S Raman
{"title":"Subspecies phylogeny in the human gut revealed by co-evolutionary constraints across the bacterial kingdom.","authors":"Benjamin A Doran, Robert Y Chen, Hannah Giba, Vivek Behera, Bidisha Barat, Anitha Sundararajan, Huaiying Lin, Ashley Sidebottom, Eric G Pamer, Arjun S Raman","doi":"10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.008","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The human gut microbiome contains many bacterial strains of the same species (\"strain-level variants\") that shape microbiome function. The tremendous scale and molecular resolution at which microbial communities are being interrogated motivates addressing how to describe strain-level variants. We introduce the \"Spectral Tree\"-an inferred tree of relatedness built from patterns of co-evolutionary constraint between greater than 7,000 diverse bacteria. Using the Spectral Tree to describe over 600 diverse gut commensal strains that we isolated, whole-genome sequenced, and metabolically profiled revealed (1) widespread phylogenetic structure among strain-level variants, (2) the origins of subspecies phylogeny as a shared history of phage infections across humans, and (3) the key role of inter-human strain variation in predicting strain-level metabolic qualities. Overall, our work demonstrates the existence and metabolic importance of structured phylogeny below the level of species for commensal gut bacteria, motivating a redefinition of individual strains according to their evolutionary context. A record of this paper's transparent peer review process is included in the supplemental information.</p>","PeriodicalId":93929,"journal":{"name":"Cell systems","volume":" ","pages":"101167"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143018343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cell systemsPub Date : 2025-02-19Epub Date: 2025-02-07DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2025.101168
Christoph Zechner, Frank Jülicher
{"title":"Concentration buffering and noise reduction in non-equilibrium phase-separating systems.","authors":"Christoph Zechner, Frank Jülicher","doi":"10.1016/j.cels.2025.101168","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cels.2025.101168","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biomolecular condensates have been proposed to buffer intracellular concentrations and reduce noise. However, concentrations need not be buffered in multicomponent systems, leading to a non-constant saturation concentration (c<sub>sat</sub>) when individual components are varied. Simplified equilibrium considerations suggest that noise reduction might be closely related to concentration buffering and that a fixed saturation concentration is required for noise reduction to be effective. Here, we present a theoretical analysis to demonstrate that these suggestions do not apply to mesoscopic fluctuating systems. We show that concentration buffering and noise reduction are distinct concepts, which cannot be used interchangeably. We further demonstrate that concentration buffering and a constant c<sub>sat</sub> are neither necessary nor sufficient for noise reduction to be effective. Clarity about these concepts is important for studying the role of condensates in controlling cellular noise and for the interpretation of concentration relationships in cells. A record of this paper's transparent peer review process is included in the supplemental information.</p>","PeriodicalId":93929,"journal":{"name":"Cell systems","volume":" ","pages":"101168"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143375047","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Inferring cell trajectories of spatial transcriptomics via optimal transport analysis.","authors":"Xunan Shen, Lulu Zuo, Zhongfei Ye, Zhongyang Yuan, Ke Huang, Zeyu Li, Qichao Yu, Xuanxuan Zou, Xiaoyu Wei, Ping Xu, Yaqi Deng, Xin Jin, Xun Xu, Liang Wu, Hongmei Zhu, Pengfei Qin","doi":"10.1016/j.cels.2025.101194","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cels.2025.101194","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The integration of cell transcriptomics and spatial position to organize differentiation trajectories remains a challenge. Here, we introduce SpaTrack, which leverages optimal transport to reconcile both gene expression and spatial position from spatial transcriptomics into the transition costs, thereby reconstructing cell differentiation. SpaTrack can construct detailed spatial trajectories that reflect the differentiation topology and trace cell dynamics across multiple samples over temporal intervals. To capture the dynamic drivers of differentiation, SpaTrack models cell fate as a function of expression profiles influenced by transcription factors over time. By applying SpaTrack, we successfully disentangle spatiotemporal trajectories of axolotl telencephalon regeneration and mouse midbrain development. Diverse malignant lineages expanding within a primary tumor are uncovered. One lineage, characterized by upregulated epithelial mesenchymal transition, implants at the metastatic site and subsequently colonizes to form a secondary tumor. Overall, SpaTrack efficiently advances trajectory inference from spatial transcriptomics, providing valuable insights into differentiation processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":93929,"journal":{"name":"Cell systems","volume":" ","pages":"101194"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143191538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cell systemsPub Date : 2025-02-19Epub Date: 2025-02-06DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2025.101169
Guillermo Nevot, Javier Santos-Moreno, Nil Campamà-Sanz, Lorena Toloza, Cristóbal Parra-Cid, Patrick A M Jansen, Içvara Barbier, Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, Ellen H van den Bogaard, Marc Güell
{"title":"Synthetically programmed antioxidant delivery by a domesticated skin commensal.","authors":"Guillermo Nevot, Javier Santos-Moreno, Nil Campamà-Sanz, Lorena Toloza, Cristóbal Parra-Cid, Patrick A M Jansen, Içvara Barbier, Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, Ellen H van den Bogaard, Marc Güell","doi":"10.1016/j.cels.2025.101169","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cels.2025.101169","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bacteria represent a promising dynamic delivery system for the treatment of disease. In the skin, the relevant location of Cutibacterium acnes within the hair follicle makes this bacterium an attractive chassis for dermal biotechnological applications. Here, we provide a genetic toolbox for the engineering of this traditionally intractable bacterium, including basic gene expression tools, biocontainment strategies, markerless genetic engineering, and dynamic transcriptional regulation. As a proof of concept, we develop an antioxidant-secreting strain capable of reducing oxidative stress in a UV stress model.</p>","PeriodicalId":93929,"journal":{"name":"Cell systems","volume":" ","pages":"101169"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143371408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cell systemsPub Date : 2025-02-19DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2025.101200
Jeffrey R Moffitt, Mingyao Li, Qing Nie, Kazumasa Kanemaru, Sarah A Teichmann, Daniel Dar, Luciane T Kagohara, Shalev Itzkovitz, Roser Vento-Tormo, Itai Yanai, Elana J Fertig, Fabian J Theis
{"title":"What is the main bottleneck in deriving biological understanding from spatial transcriptomic profiling?","authors":"Jeffrey R Moffitt, Mingyao Li, Qing Nie, Kazumasa Kanemaru, Sarah A Teichmann, Daniel Dar, Luciane T Kagohara, Shalev Itzkovitz, Roser Vento-Tormo, Itai Yanai, Elana J Fertig, Fabian J Theis","doi":"10.1016/j.cels.2025.101200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2025.101200","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":93929,"journal":{"name":"Cell systems","volume":"16 2","pages":"101200"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143470304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cell systemsPub Date : 2025-01-15Epub Date: 2024-12-16DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.002
Eli Metzner, Kaden M Southard, Thomas M Norman
{"title":"Multiome Perturb-seq unlocks scalable discovery of integrated perturbation effects on the transcriptome and epigenome.","authors":"Eli Metzner, Kaden M Southard, Thomas M Norman","doi":"10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Single-cell CRISPR screens link genetic perturbations to transcriptional states, but high-throughput methods connecting these induced changes to their regulatory foundations are limited. Here, we introduce Multiome Perturb-seq, extending single-cell CRISPR screens to simultaneously measure perturbation-induced changes in gene expression and chromatin accessibility. We apply Multiome Perturb-seq in a CRISPRi screen of 13 chromatin remodelers in human RPE-1 cells, achieving efficient assignment of sgRNA identities to single nuclei via an improved method for capturing barcode transcripts from nuclear RNA. We organize expression and accessibility measurements into coherent programs describing the integrated effects of perturbations on cell state, finding that ARID1A and SUZ12 knockdowns induce programs enriched for developmental features. Modeling of perturbation-induced heterogeneity connects accessibility changes to changes in gene expression, highlighting the value of multimodal profiling. Overall, our method provides a scalable and simply implemented system to dissect the regulatory logic underpinning cell state. A record of this paper's transparent peer review process is included in the supplemental information.</p>","PeriodicalId":93929,"journal":{"name":"Cell systems","volume":" ","pages":"101161"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11738662/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142848688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cell systemsPub Date : 2025-01-15DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.003
Timothy E Hoffman, Chengzhe Tian, Varuna Nangia, Chen Yang, Sergi Regot, Luca Gerosa, Sabrina L Spencer
{"title":"CDK2 activity crosstalk on the ERK kinase translocation reporter can be resolved computationally.","authors":"Timothy E Hoffman, Chengzhe Tian, Varuna Nangia, Chen Yang, Sergi Regot, Luca Gerosa, Sabrina L Spencer","doi":"10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway integrates growth factor signaling through extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) to control cell proliferation. To study ERK dynamics, many researchers use an ERK activity kinase translocation reporter (KTR). Our study reveals that this ERK KTR also partially senses cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) activity, making it appear as if ERK activity rises as cells progress through the cell cycle. Through single-cell time-lapse imaging, we identified a residual ERK KTR signal that was eliminated by selective CDK2 inhibitors, indicating crosstalk from CDK2 onto the ERK KTR. By contrast, EKAREN5, a FRET-based ERK sensor, showed no CDK2 crosstalk. A related p38 KTR is also partly affected by CDK2 activity. To address this, we developed linear and non-linear computational correction methods that subtract CDK2 signal from the ERK and p38 KTRs. These findings will allow for more accurate quantification of MAPK activities, especially for studies of actively cycling cells.</p>","PeriodicalId":93929,"journal":{"name":"Cell systems","volume":"16 1","pages":"101162"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143018252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cell systemsPub Date : 2025-01-15DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.007
Edmund C Lattime, Subhajyoti De
{"title":"Modeling non-genetic adaptation in tumor cells.","authors":"Edmund C Lattime, Subhajyoti De","doi":"10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.007","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Treatment resistance poses a significant challenge in the care of cancer patients. Hirsch et al. applied computational and genomic approaches, examining gene expression dynamics from a mouse model of melanoma at single-cell resolution to reveal that semi-heritable non-genetic alterations in tumor cell populations confer adaptive resistance to treatment.</p>","PeriodicalId":93929,"journal":{"name":"Cell systems","volume":"16 1","pages":"101166"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143018257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cell systemsPub Date : 2025-01-15Epub Date: 2025-01-07DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.006
Yuta Nagano, Andrew G T Pyo, Martina Milighetti, James Henderson, John Shawe-Taylor, Benny Chain, Andreas Tiffeau-Mayer
{"title":"Contrastive learning of T cell receptor representations.","authors":"Yuta Nagano, Andrew G T Pyo, Martina Milighetti, James Henderson, John Shawe-Taylor, Benny Chain, Andreas Tiffeau-Mayer","doi":"10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Computational prediction of the interaction of T cell receptors (TCRs) and their ligands is a grand challenge in immunology. Despite advances in high-throughput assays, specificity-labeled TCR data remain sparse. In other domains, the pre-training of language models on unlabeled data has been successfully used to address data bottlenecks. However, it is unclear how to best pre-train protein language models for TCR specificity prediction. Here, we introduce a TCR language model called SCEPTR (simple contrastive embedding of the primary sequence of T cell receptors), which is capable of data-efficient transfer learning. Through our model, we introduce a pre-training strategy combining autocontrastive learning and masked-language modeling, which enables SCEPTR to achieve its state-of-the-art performance. In contrast, existing protein language models and a variant of SCEPTR pre-trained without autocontrastive learning are outperformed by sequence alignment-based methods. We anticipate that contrastive learning will be a useful paradigm to decode the rules of TCR specificity. A record of this paper's transparent peer review process is included in the supplemental information.</p>","PeriodicalId":93929,"journal":{"name":"Cell systems","volume":" ","pages":"101165"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142960222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cell systemsPub Date : 2025-01-15Epub Date: 2025-01-07DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.005
Da-Wei Lin, Ling Zhang, Jin Zhang, Sriram Chandrasekaran
{"title":"Inferring metabolic objectives and trade-offs in single cells during embryogenesis.","authors":"Da-Wei Lin, Ling Zhang, Jin Zhang, Sriram Chandrasekaran","doi":"10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cels.2024.12.005","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>While proliferating cells optimize their metabolism to produce biomass, the metabolic objectives of cells that perform non-proliferative tasks are unclear. The opposing requirements for optimizing each objective result in a trade-off that forces single cells to prioritize their metabolic needs and optimally allocate limited resources. Here, we present single-cell optimization objective and trade-off inference (SCOOTI), which infers metabolic objectives and trade-offs in biological systems by integrating bulk and single-cell omics data, using metabolic modeling and machine learning. We validated SCOOTI by identifying essential genes from CRISPR-Cas9 screens in embryonic stem cells, and by inferring the metabolic objectives of quiescent cells, during different cell-cycle phases. Applying this to embryonic cell states, we observed a decrease in metabolic entropy upon development. We further uncovered a trade-off between glutathione and biosynthetic precursors in one-cell zygote, two-cell embryo, and blastocyst cells, potentially representing a trade-off between pluripotency and proliferation. A record of this paper's transparent peer review process is included in the supplemental information.</p>","PeriodicalId":93929,"journal":{"name":"Cell systems","volume":" ","pages":"101164"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11738665/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142960238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}