查看文章

Crosstalk between neighboring cells underlies many biological processes, including cell signaling, proliferation and differentiation. Current single-cell genomic technologies profile each cell separately after tissue dissociation, losing information on cell–cell interactions. In the present study, we present an approach for sequencing physically interacting cells (PIC-seq), which combines cell sorting of physically interacting cells (PICs) with single-cell RNA-sequencing. Using computational modeling, PIC-seq systematically maps in situ cellular interactions and characterizes their molecular crosstalk. We apply PIC-seq to interrogate diverse interactions including immune–epithelial PICs in neonatal murine lungs. Focusing on interactions between T cells and dendritic cells (DCs) in vitro and in vivo, we map T cell–DC interaction preferences, and discover regulatory T cells as a major T cell subtype interacting with DCs in …