Fig. 3

Key α-cell transitional gene expression signatures define α-cell stages after acute β-cell loss. A PCA shows that 1522 differentially expressed genes are enough to distinguish between α-cells from different stages after β-cell loss. The bar plot on the left depicts the percent of variance explained by each of the principal components (PC). PC1, accounting itself for 40% of the variance among samples, clearly separates α-cell 15dpDT replicates from the rest of the samples, suggesting that these cells present the most different transcriptomic signature. B Hierarchical clustering of 1522 differentially expressed genes identifies 5 gene clusters associated with specific α-cell signatures that are characteristic of each stage. C Clustered genes’ distribution across the PCA1, PCA2 and PCA3 dimensions. D The gene expression pattern characteristic of each cluster is associated with enrichment at specific α-cell stages. The boxes show the IQR of RNA levels, whiskers extend to 1.5 times the IQR or extreme values and notches indicate 95% confidence intervals of the median. The P-value was calculated with the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. NS: Not significant