Figure 1. Transcriptional profiling of isolated human radial glial cells distinguishes apical from non-apical subpopulations.

a, Workflow and strategy for FACS isolation of human RGC subpopulations by cell surface marker expression. LeX and GLAST are used as pan-RGC markers (LG⁺) while PROM1 is used to select apical (Pr^hi) and non-apical (Pr^lo) subpopulations from within the LG⁺ pool. WG, weeks of gestation. b, Human LG⁺ cells are predominantly LG⁺Pr^lo (~80%) whereas virtually all mouse LG⁺ cells are LG⁺Pr^hi (>95%) consistent with the relative abundance of ORG in humans and their paucity in mouse. c, Principle component (PC) analysis of transcriptome-wide gene expression estimates (FPKM) across three biological replicates of FACS-separated subpopulations reveals major gene expression differences between LG⁺ progenitors and LG⁻ cells (first PC, x-axis), as well as between LG⁺Pr^hi apical and LG⁺Pr^lo non-apical radial glial subtypes (second PC, y-axis). d, Differential expression between LG⁺Pr^hi apical and LG⁺Pr^lo non-apical RGC subpopulations included genes involved in calcium signaling, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and cell migration and motility, as well as several members of a proneural transcription factor network regulated by the transcription factor NEUROG2.