RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 A human single-cell atlas of the Substantia nigra reveals novel cell-specific pathways associated with the genetic risk of Parkinson’s disease and neuropsychiatric disorders JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2020.04.29.067587 DO 10.1101/2020.04.29.067587 A1 Devika Agarwal A1 Cynthia Sandor A1 Viola Volpato A1 Tara Caffrey A1 Jimena Monzon-Sandoval A1 Rory Bowden A1 Javier Alegre-Abarrategui A1 Richard Wade-Martins A1 Caleb Webber YR 2020 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/30/2020.04.29.067587.abstract AB We describe a human single-nuclei transcriptomic atlas for the Substantia nigra (SN), generated by sequencing ~ 17,000 nuclei from matched cortical and SN samples. We show that the common genetic risk for Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with dopaminergic neuron (DaN)-specific gene expression, including mitochondrial functioning, protein folding and ubiquitination pathways. We identify a distinct cell type association between PD risk and oligodendrocyte-specific gene expression. Unlike Alzheimer’s disease (AD), we find no association between PD risk and microglia or astrocytes, suggesting that neuroinflammation plays a less causal role in PD than AD. Beyond PD, we find associations between SN DaNs and GABAergic neuron gene expression patterns with multiple neuropsychiatric disorders. Nevertheless, we find that each neuropsychiatric disorder is associated with a distinct set of genes within that neuron type. This atlas guides our aetiological understanding by associating SN cell type expression profiles with specific disease risk.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.