Single-cell analysis of the common lymphoid progenitor compartment reveals functional and molecular heterogeneity

To investigate molecular events involved in the regulation of lymphoid lineage commitment, we crossed lambda 5 reporter transgenic mice to Rag1-GFP knockin mice. This allowed us to subfractionate common lymphoid progenitors and pre-pro-B (fraction A) cells into lambda 5(-)Rag1(low), lambda 5(-)Rag1(high), and lambda 5(+)Rag1(high) cells. Clonal in vitro differentiation analysis demonstrated that Rag1(low) cells gave rise to B/T and NK cells. Rag1(high) cells displayed reduced NK-cell potential with preserved capacity to generate B- and T-lineage cells, whereas the lambda 5(+) cells were B-lineage restricted. Ebf1 and Pax5 expression was largely confined to the Rag1(high) populations. These cells also expressed a higher level of the surface protein LY6D, providing an additional tool for the analysis of early lymphoid development. These data suggest that the classic common lymphoid progenitor compartment composes a mixture of cells with relatively restricted lineage potentials, thus opening new possibilities to investigate early hematopoiesis. (Blood. 2010;115(13):2601-2609)