Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of the adult mouse spinal cord reveals molecular diversity of autonomic and skeletal motor neurons

The spinal cord is a fascinating structure that is responsible for coordinating movement in vertebrates. Spinal motor neurons control muscle activity by transmitting signals from the spinal cord to diverse peripheral targets. In this study, we profiled 43,890 single-nucleus transcriptomes from the a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature neuroscience 2021-04, Vol.24 (4), p.572-583
Main Authors: Blum, Jacob A, Klemm, Sandy, Shadrach, Jennifer L, Guttenplan, Kevin A, Nakayama, Lisa, Kathiria, Arwa, Hoang, Phuong T, Gautier, Olivia, Kaltschmidt, Julia A, Greenleaf, William J, Gitler, Aaron D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Autonomic Nervous System
Fluorescence
Gene expression
Gene sequencing
Health aspects
Heterogeneity
Identification and classification
Localization
Mice
Motor neurons
Motor Neurons - cytology
Motor task performance
Muscle, Skeletal - innervation
Muscles
Nervous system, Autonomic
Neurons
Nuclei (cytology)
Physiological aspects
RNA sequencing
Single-Cell Analysis
Spatial discrimination
Spinal cord
Spinal Cord - cytology
Transcription
Transcriptome
Vertebrates
Viscera - innervation
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Summary:The spinal cord is a fascinating structure that is responsible for coordinating movement in vertebrates. Spinal motor neurons control muscle activity by transmitting signals from the spinal cord to diverse peripheral targets. In this study, we profiled 43,890 single-nucleus transcriptomes from the adult mouse spinal cord using fluorescence-activated nuclei sorting to enrich for motor neuron nuclei. We identified 16 sympathetic motor neuron clusters, which are distinguishable by spatial localization and expression of neuromodulatory signaling genes. We found surprising skeletal motor neuron heterogeneity in the adult spinal cord, including transcriptional differences that correlate with electrophysiologically and spatially distinct motor pools. We also provide evidence for a novel transcriptional subpopulation of skeletal motor neuron (γ*). Collectively, these data provide a single-cell transcriptional atlas ( http://spinalcordatlas.org ) for investigating the organizing molecular logic of adult motor neuron diversity, as well as the cellular and molecular basis of motor neuron function in health and disease.
ISSN:1097-6256
1546-1726
DOI:10.1038/s41593-020-00795-0