Temporally matched subpopulations of selectively interconnected principal neurons in the hippocampus

The extent to which individual neurons are interconnected selectively within brain circuits is an unresolved problem in neuroscience. Neurons can be organized into preferentially interconnected microcircuits, but whether this reflects genetically defined subpopulations is unclear. We found that the principal neurons in the main subdivisions of the hippocampus consist of distinct subpopulations that are generated during distinct time windows and that interconnect selectively across subdivisions. In two mouse lines in which transgene expression was driven by the neuron-specific Thy1 promoter, transgene expression allowed us to visualize distinct populations of principal neurons with unique and matched patterns of gene expression, shared distinct neurogenesis and synaptogenesis time windows, and selective connectivity at dentate gyrus-CA3 and CA3-CA1 synapses. Matched subpopulation marker genes and neuronal subtype markers mapped near clusters of olfactory receptor genes. The nonoverlapping matched timings of synaptogenesis accounted for the selective connectivities of these neurons in CA3. Therefore, the hippocampus contains parallel connectivity channels assembled from distinct principal neuron subpopulations through matched schedules of synaptogenesis.