Characterization of the human fetal gonad and reproductive tract by single-cell transcriptomics

Summary During human fetal development, sex differentiation occurs not only in the gonads but also in the adjacent developing reproductive tract. However, while the cellular composition of male and female human fetal gonads is well described, that of the adjacent developing reproductive tract remains poorly characterized. Here, we performed single-cell transcriptomics on male and female human fetal gonads together with the adjacent developing reproductive tract from first and second trimesters, highlighting the morphological and molecular changes during sex differentiation. We validated different cell populations of the developing reproductive tract and gonads and compared the molecular signatures between the first and second trimesters, as well as between sexes, to identify conserved and sex-specific features. Together, our study provides insights into human fetal sex-specific gonadogenesis and development of the reproductive tract beyond the gonads.

• Publication year

  2024

• Venue

  Developmental Cell

• Publication date

  2024-01-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.devcel.2024.01.006PMID 38295793PMCID 10898717
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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