Single-cell multiomic analysis of ILC1 heterogeneity
To further investigate the heterogeneity of ILC1 cells, a differential gene and protein expression analysis was performed between the three subsets of CD4+CD8−, CD4−CD8+ and CD4−CD8− ILC1 populations. Figure B (above) shows a single-cell heatmap displaying representative protein and gene signatures associated with each subset and illustrates the high heterogeneity and complexity of the ILC1 subset. These data demonstrate the power of a single-cell multiomic approach to screen a high number of proteins and genes and discover critical markers required to define and discriminate unique cell subsets within highly heterogeneous samples.
Of the 42 AbSeq markers tested, this study identified 13 surface markers differentially expressed between the three subsets of ILC1. Also, one differentially expressed gene (CD63) coding for the surface protein CD63 was identified. Further, a 21-color flow cytometry panel was designed based on the learnings from the multiomic data generated to rapidly profile multiple samples for ILC’s (data not shown).