PEDIA-BRAIN: A single nuclei multiomic encyclopedia of the human pons provides a resource for normal development and disease vulnerability

The human pons relays sensory and motor information between the brain and the body. It is a key site for pathological processes, including diffuse midline gliomas (DMGs) and multiple sclerosis (MS) which predominantly arise in childhood and middle age, respectively. Although multiple studies address disease states, a comprehensive resource for normal pons development is lacking. Here we present PEDIA-BRAIN, an encyclopedia of gene expression and chromatin accessibility from 149,771 human pons nuclei spanning the first trimester to early adulthood to serve as a resource for the scientific community. Exploration of the encylopedia identified two trajectories to mature oligodendrocytes and developmental restriction of synaptic interactions between neurons and oligodendrocyte precursor cells. To illustrate the utility of the resource, we mapped single cell transcriptomes from DMG and MS samples and identified depletion of mature oligodendrocyte subtypes as a shared feature of both diseases. Data may be browsed and downloaded at pediabrain.nchgenomics.org .