Single nucleus transcriptome and chromatin accessibility of postmortem human pituitaries reveal diverse stem cell regulatory mechanisms
Updated September 4, 2023Despite their importance in tissue homeostasis and renewal, human pituitary stem cells (PSCs) are incompletely characterized. We describe a human single nucleus RNA-seq and ATAC-seq resource from pediatric, adult, and aged postmortem pituitaries (snpituitaryatlas.princeton.edu) and characterize cell-type-specific gene expression and chromatin accessibility programs for all major pituitary cell lineages. We identify uncommitted PSCs, committing progenitor cells, and sex differences. Pseudotime trajectory analysis indicates that early-life PSCs are distinct from the other age groups. Linear modeling of same-cell multiome data identifies regulatory domain accessibility sites and transcription factors that are significantly associated with gene expression in PSCs compared with other cell types and within PSCs. We identify distinct deterministic mechanisms that contribute to heterogeneous marker expression within PSCs. These findings characterize human stem cell lineages and reveal diverse mechanisms regulating key PSC genes and cell type identity.
To reference this project, please use the following link:
Supplementary links are provided by contributors and represent items such as additional data which can’t be hosted here; code that was used to analyze this data; or tools and visualizations associated with this specific dataset.
Downloaded and exported data is governed by the HCA Data Release Policy and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). For more information please see our Data Use Agreement.
Analysis Portals
NoneProject Label
PituitariesStemCellRegulationSpecies
Sample Type
Anatomical Entity
Organ Part
Selected Cell Types
Disease Status (Specimen)
Disease Status (Donor)
Development Stage
Library Construction Method
Nucleic Acid Source
Paired End
false, trueAnalysis Protocol
matrix_generation_ATACseq, matrix_generation_RNAseq, matrix_generation_multiomeFile Format
Cell Count Estimate
135.2kDonor Count
6