1 Classification Biological Science Cell Biology Urethral luminal epithelia are castration-insensitive progenitors of the proximal prostate Diya B. Joseph 1 , Gervaise H. Henry 1 , Alicia Malewska 1 , Nida S. Iqbal 1 , Hannah M. Ruetten 2 , Anne E. Turco 2 , Lisa L. Abler 2 , Simran K. Sandhu 2 , Mark T. Cadena 2 , Venkat S. Malladi 3 , Jeffrey C. Reese 4 , Ryan J. Mauck 1 , Jeffrey C. Gahan 1 , Ryan C. Hutchinson 1 , Claus G. Roehrborn 1 , Linda A. Baker 1 ,Chad M. Vezina 2 , Douglas W. Strand 1* 1 Department of Urology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390; USA 2 Department of Comparative Biosciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706; USA 3 Department of Bioinformatics, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390; USA 4 Southwest Transplant Alliance, Dallas, TX, 75231; USA * Corresponding author and lead contact email: Douglas.Strand@UTSouthwestern.edu Orcid ID: 0000-0002-0746-927X Keywords Prostate, progenitor, castration, urethra, single cell RNA sequencing, BPH Author Contributions Conceptualization, D.W.S.; Methodology, D.W.S, G.H.H., D.B.J., and C.M.V.; Software, G.H.H; Validation, D.W.S.; Formal Analysis, D.W.S., D.B.J., G.H.H., and C.M.V.; Investigation, D.W.S., D.B.J., G.H.H., A.M., N.S.I, H.R., A.T., L.L.A., S.K.S., M.T.C., R.J.M., J.C.R., and R.C.H.; Resources, D.W.S., C.G.R., R.C.H., J.C.R., and C.M.V.; Data Curation, G.H.H. and D.B.J.; Writing – Original Draft, D.W.S., D.B.J.; Writing – Review and Editing, D.W.S., D.B.J.; and C.M.V.; Visualization, D.W.S.; Supervision, D.W.S.; Project Administration, D.W.S.; Funding Acquisition, D.W.S., C.M.V., L.B. and C.G.R. This PDF file includes: Main Text Figures 1 to 5 (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted February 25, 2020. . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.19.937615 doi: bioRxiv preprint