RT Journal
A1 Breschi, Alessandra
A1 Muñoz-Aguirre, Manuel
A1 Wucher, Valentin
A1 Davis, Carrie A.
A1 Garrido-Martín, Diego
A1 Djebali, Sarah
A1 Gillis, Jesse
A1 Pervouchine, Dmitri D.
A1 Vlasova, Anna
A1 Dobin, Alexander
A1 Zaleski, Chris
A1 Drenkow, Jorg
A1 Danyko, Cassidy
A1 Scavelli, Alexandra
A1 Reverter, Ferran
A1 Snyder, Michael P.
A1 Gingeras, Thomas R.
A1 Guigó, Roderic
T1 A limited set of transcriptional programs define major cell types
JF Genome Research 
JO Genome Research 
YR 2020 
FD July 01 
VO 30 
IS 7 
SP 1047 
OP 1059 
DO 10.1101/gr.263186.120 
UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/30/7/1047.abstract 
AB We have produced RNA sequencing data for 53 primary cells from different locations in the human body. The clustering of these primary cells reveals that most cells in the human body share a few broad transcriptional programs, which define five major cell types: epithelial, endothelial, mesenchymal, neural, and blood cells. These act as basic components of many tissues and organs. Based on gene expression, these cell types redefine the basic histological types by which tissues have been traditionally classified. We identified genes whose expression is specific to these cell types, and from these genes, we estimated the contribution of the major cell types to the composition of human tissues. We found this cellular composition to be a characteristic signature of tissues and to reflect tissue morphological heterogeneity and histology. We identified changes in cellular composition in different tissues associated with age and sex, and found that departures from the normal cellular composition correlate with histological phenotypes associated with disease.