Inferring metabolic rewiring in embryonic neural development using single cell data

Metabolism is intricately linked with cell fate changes. Much of this understanding comes from detailed metabolomics studies averaged across a population of cells which may be composed of multiple cell types. Currently, there are no quantitative techniques sensitive enough to assess metabolomics broadly at the single cell level. Here we present scMetNet, a technique that interrogates metabolic rewiring at the single cell resolution and we apply it to murine embryonic development. Our method first confirms the key metabolic pathways, categorized into bioenergetic, epigenetic and biosynthetic, that change as embryonic neural stem cells differentiate and age. It then goes beyond to identify specific sub-networks, such as the cholesterol and mevalonate biosynthesis pathway, that drive the global metabolic changes during neural cortical development. Having such contextual information about metabolic rewiring provides putative mechanisms driving stem cell differentiation and identifies potential targets for regulating neural stem cell and neuronal biology.