The organization of spinal neurons: Insights from single cell sequencing

Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2023 Aug 30;82:102762. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2023.102762. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTTo understand how the spinal cord enacts complex sensorimotor functions, researchers have studied, classified, and functionally probed it's many neuronal populations for over a century. Recent developments in single-cell RNA-sequencing can characterize the gene expression signatures of the entire set of spinal neuron types and can simultaneously provide an unbiased view of their relationships to each other. This approach has revealed that the location of neurons predicts transcriptomic variability, as dorsal spinal neurons become highly distinct over development as ventral spinal neurons become less so. Temporal specification is also a major source of gene expression variation, subdividing many of the canonical embryonic lineage domains. Together, birthdate and cell body location are fundamental organizing features of spinal neuron diversity.PMID:37657185 | DOI:10.1016/j.conb.2023.102762

Source: Current Opinion in Neurobiology - September 1, 2023 Category: Neurology Authors: R Brian Roome Ariel J Levine Source Type: research