Heterogeneity of human lympho myeloid progenitors at the single cell level

The human hemopoietic progenitor hierarchy producing lymphoid and granulocytic-monocytic (myeloid) lineages is unclear. Multiple progenitor populations produce lymphoid and myeloid cells, but remain incompletely characterized. Here, we demonstrated cord blood lympho-myeloid containing progenitor populations-the lymphoid-primed multi-potential progenitor (LMPP), granulocyte-macrophage progenitor (GMP) and multi-lymphoid progenitor (MLP)-were functionally and transcriptionally distinct and heterogeneous at the clonal level, with progenitors of many different functional potentials present. Though most progenitors had uni-lineage myeloid or lymphoid potential, bi-and rarer multi-lineage progenitors occurred in LMPP, GMP and MLP. This, coupled with single cell expression analyses, suggested a continuum of progenitors execute lymphoid and myeloid differentiation rather than only uni-lineage …