Single-cell genomics to study developmental cell fate decisions in zebrafish

New developments in single-cell genomics have transformed developmental biology in recent years by enabling systematic analysis of embryonic cell types and differentiation trajectories. Ongoing efforts in experimental and computational method development aim to reveal gene-regulatory mechanisms and to provide additional spatio-temporal information about developmental cell fate decisions. Here, we discuss recent technological developments as well as biological applications of single-cell genomics, with a particular focus on analysis of developmental cell fate decisions. Although the approaches described here are generally applicable to a broad range of model systems, we focus our discussion on applications in zebrafish, which has proven to be a particularly powerful model organism for establishing novel methods in single-cell genomics.

Automated summary

Recent advances in single-cell genomics have revolutionized developmental biology by allowing systematic analysis of embryonic cell types and differentiation trajectories. Ongoing efforts in experimental and computational methods aim to uncover gene-regulatory mechanisms and provide spatio-temporal information about developmental cell fate decisions. Zebrafish has emerged as a particularly powerful model organism for establishing novel methods in single-cell genomics.