RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Transcriptomic evidence that von Economo neurons are regionally specialized extratelencephalic-projecting excitatory neurons
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 627505
DO 10.1101/627505
A1 Rebecca D Hodge
A1 Jeremy A Miller
A1 Mark Novotny
A1 Brian E Kalmbach
A1 Jonathan T Ting
A1 Trygve E Bakken
A1 Brian D Aevermann
A1 Eliza R Barkan
A1 Madeline L Berkowitz-Cerasano
A1 Charles Cobbs
A1 Francisco Diez-Fuertes
A1 Song-Lin Ding
A1 Jamison McCorrison
A1 Nicholas J Schork
A1 Soraya I Shehata
A1 Kimberly A Smith
A1 Susan M Sunkin
A1 Danny N Tran
A1 Pratap Venepally
A1 Anna Marie Yanny
A1 Frank J Steemers
A1 John W Phillips
A1 Amy Bernard
A1 Christof Koch
A1 Roger S Lasken
A1 Richard H Scheuermann
A1 Ed S Lein
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/05/07/627505.abstract
AB von Economo neurons (VENs) are bipolar, spindle-shaped neurons restricted to layer 5 of human frontoinsula and anterior cingulate cortex that appear to be selectively vulnerable to neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, although little is known about other VEN cellular phenotypes. Single nucleus RNA-sequencing of frontoinsula layer 5 identified a transcriptomically-defined cell cluster that contained VENs, but also fork cells and a subset of pyramidal neurons. Cross-species alignment of this cell cluster with a well-annotated mouse classification shows strong homology to extratelencephalic (ET) excitatory neurons that project to subcerebral targets. This cluster also shows strong homology to a putative ET cluster in human temporal cortex, but with a strikingly specific regional signature. Together these results predict VENs are a regionally distinctive type of ET neuron, and we additionally describe the first patch clamp recordings of VENs from neurosurgically-resected tissue that show distinctive intrinsic membrane properties relative to neighboring pyramidal neurons.