Figure 3.

Cluster 8 was identified as a unique entity representing TAC progenitor cells in the combined scRNA-seq dataset of basal limbus from two donors. (A) Heatmap shows the expression features of C8 TACs using 10 genes known as proliferation markers. (B) Violin and feature plots show the top six proliferation markers enriched by C8. (C) Seurat cell cycle scoring revealed the cell cycle status of each cluster. Most cells (98.1%) in C8 were in cell proliferation cycles. (D) Annotation of 12 clusters showing the different cell types based on the single-cell transcriptomic profiles of 16,360 cells and biological validation. (E) The log2 fold changes of putative stem and progenitor marker genes in three cell types, TDC_C0, TAC_C8, and LSC_C10, as revealed by scRNA-seq. TDC, terminally differentiated cell.