Fig. 5. apob RNAi preferentially dysregulates transcripts in differentiating neoblast progeny and mature cell states.

apob RNAi dysregulates greater proportions of X2 (a) and PIWI-LO (b) signature transcripts (arrows in histograms). Venn diagrams at top show analysis scheme: percent of X1/X2/Xins (a) and PIWI-HI/PIWI-LO/PIWI-NEG (b) signature transcripts⁵⁰ that overlap with transcripts dysregulated in apob-M (“mild”) and apob-S (“severe”) animals (this study) (see also Supplementary Fig. 6a–d). Histograms show percentage of signature transcripts up- (red) and downregulated (blue) in apob-M/apob-S animals. c Schematic example (for epidermal lineage) illustrating how transcripts dysregulated in apob(RNAi) animals were cross-referenced with neoblast (N), transition state (TS), progeny (P), and mature (M) cell state subclusters from ref. ⁴⁰. See Methods for details. d–f t-SNE plots (digiworm.wi.mit.edu) indicate subclusters and piwi-1 mRNA expression for each lineage. g–i apob knockdown dysregulated greater proportions of transcripts enriched in progeny (“P”) and mature (“M”) cell subclusters in multiple cell type lineages. Arrows indicate less-affected transcripts enriched in neoblasts/transition state (“N/TS”) subclusters. Carets (^) (a, b, g–i) indicate significant gene expression overlap (P < 0.05, Fisher’s exact test, see Source Data for individual p values).