Fig. 1. Generation of RPE from iPSCs, identification, and characterization of RPE subpopulations.

a Schematic representation of the cell culture flow, with iPSCs differentiated into RPE cells in 90 days prior to harvest for scRNA-seq and mass spectrometry. b Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) of cells labeled by subpopulation and RPE UScore. Cells were assigned to subpopulations identified in a previous study using a supervised classification method, and colored by subpopulation, and similarity to adult RPE was calculated using the UScore R package. c Dotplot representation of average expression following z-transformation of genes associated with RPE functions (extracellular structure organization, phagocytosis, secretion, melanin biosynthesis, visual cycle, lipid biosynthesis, differentiation, and proliferation) and progenitors (differentiation, proliferation) in the various subpopulations. Levels of gene expression per cell are shown with color gradients, and frequencies of cells expressing the respective gene (% expressed) are shown in size of dots.