The Biodiversity Cell Atlas: mapping the tree of life at cellular resolution

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Item Type:	Review
Title:	The Biodiversity Cell Atlas: mapping the tree of life at cellular resolution
Creators Name:	Sebé-Pedrós, Arnau, Tanay, Amos, Lawniczak, Mara K.N., Arendt, Detlev, Aerts, Stein, Archibald, John, Arnone, Maria Ina, Blaxter, Mark, Cleves, Phillip, Coelho, Susana M., Dias, Mafalda, Dunn, Casey, Elek, Anamaria, Frazer, Jonathan, Gabaldón, Toni, Gillis, Jesse, Grau-Bové, Xavier, Guigó, Roderic, Hobert, Oliver, Huerta-Cepas, Jaime, Irimia, Manuel, Klein, Allon, Lewin, Harris, Lowe, Christopher J., Marlow, Heather, Musser, Jacob M, Nagy, László G., Najle, Sebastián R., Pachter, Lior, Paez, Sadye, Papatheodorou, Irene, Passalacqua, Michael J., Rajewsky, Nikolaus, Rhee, Seung Y., Richards, Thomas A., Sauka-Spengler, Tatjana, Saunders, Lauren M., Seuntjens, Eve, Solana, Jordi, Song, Yuyao, Technau, Ulrich and Wang, Bo
Abstract:	Cell types are fundamental functional units that can be traced across the tree of life. Rapid advances in single-cell technologies, coupled with the phylogenetic expansion in genome sequencing, present opportunities for the molecular characterization of cells across a broad range of organisms. Despite these developments, our understanding of eukaryotic cell diversity remains limited and we are far from decoding this diversity from genome sequences. Here we introduce the Biodiversity Cell Atlas initiative, which aims to create comprehensive single-cell molecular atlases across the eukaryotic tree of life. This community effort will be phylogenetically informed, rely on high-quality genomes and use shared standards to facilitate comparisons across species. The Biodiversity Cell Atlas aspires to deepen our understanding of the evolution and diversity of life at the cellular level, encompassing gene regulatory programs, differentiation trajectories, cell-type-specific molecular profiles and inter-organismal interactions.
Source:	Nature
ISSN:	0028-0836
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
Volume:	645
Number:	8082
Page Range:	877-885
Date:	September 2025
Official Publication:	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09312-4
PubMed:	View item in PubMed

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