RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Single-cell RNA-seq uncovers shared and distinct axes of variation in dorsal LGN neurons in mice, non-human primates and humans
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.11.05.367482
DO 10.1101/2020.11.05.367482
A1 Trygve E. Bakken
A1 Cindy T.J. van Velthoven
A1 Vilas Menon
A1 Rebecca D. Hodge
A1 Zizhen Yao
A1 Thuc Nghi Nguyen
A1 Lucas T. Graybuck
A1 Gregory D. Horwitz
A1 Darren Bertagnolli
A1 Jeff Goldy
A1 Emma Garren
A1 Sheana Parry
A1 Tamara Casper
A1 Soraya I. Shehata
A1 Eliza R. Barkan
A1 Aaron Szafer
A1 Boaz P. Levi
A1 Nick Dee
A1 Kimberly A. Smith
A1 Susan M. Sunkin
A1 Amy Bernard
A1 John W. Phillips
A1 Michael Hawrylycz
A1 Christof Koch
A1 Gabe Murphy
A1 Ed Lein
A1 Hongkui Zeng
A1 Bosiljka Tasic
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/12/2020.11.05.367482.abstract
AB Abundant anatomical and physiological evidence supports the presence of at least three distinct types of relay glutamatergic neurons in the primate dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of the thalamus, the brain region that conveys visual information from the retina to the primary visual cortex. Relay neuron diversity has also been described in the mouse dLGN (also known as LGd). Different types of relay neurons in mice, humans and macaques have distinct morphologies, distinct connectivity patterns, and convey different aspects of visual information to the cortex. To investigate the molecular underpinnings of these cell types, and how these relate to other cellular properties and differences in dLGN between human, macaque, and mice, we profiled gene expression in single nuclei and cells using RNA-sequencing. These efforts identified four distinct types of relay neurons in the primate dLGN, magnocellular neurons, parvocellular neurons, and two cell types expressing canonical marker genes for koniocellular neurons. Surprisingly, despite extensive documented morphological and physiological differences between magno- and parvocellular neurons, we identified few genes with significant differential expression between transcriptomic cell types corresponding to these two neuronal populations. We also detected strong donor-specific gene expression signatures in both macaque and human relay neurons. Likewise, the dominant feature of relay neurons of the adult mouse dLGN is high transcriptomic similarity, with an axis of heterogeneity that aligns with core vs. shell portions of mouse dLGN. Together, these data show that transcriptomic differences between principal cell types in the mature mammalian dLGN are subtle relative to striking differences in morphology and cortical projection targets. Finally, we align cellular expression profiles across species and find homologous types of relay neurons in macaque and human, and distinct relay neurons in mouse.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.