- Churko, Jared M;
- Garg, Priyanka;
- Treutlein, Barbara;
- Venkatasubramanian, Meenakshi;
- Wu, Haodi;
- Lee, Jaecheol;
- Wessells, Quinton N;
- Chen, Shih-Yu;
- Chen, Wen-Yi;
- Chetal, Kashish;
- Mantalas, Gary;
- Neff, Norma;
- Jabart, Eric;
- Sharma, Arun;
- Nolan, Garry P;
- Salomonis, Nathan;
- Wu, Joseph C
Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) have become a powerful tool for human disease modeling and therapeutic testing. However, their use remains limited by their immaturity and heterogeneity. To characterize the source of this heterogeneity, we applied complementary single-cell RNA-seq and bulk RNA-seq technologies over time during hiPSC cardiac differentiation and in the adult heart. Using integrated transcriptomic and splicing analysis, more than half a dozen distinct single-cell populations were observed, several of which were coincident at a single time-point, day 30 of differentiation. To dissect the role of distinct cardiac transcriptional regulators associated with each cell population, we systematically tested the effect of a gain or loss of three transcription factors (NR2F2, TBX5, and HEY2), using CRISPR genome editing and ChIP-seq, in conjunction with patch clamp, calcium imaging, and CyTOF analysis. These targets, data, and integrative genomics analysis methods provide a powerful platform for understanding in vitro cellular heterogeneity.