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Updated: Feb 6, 2026

Whole Cell Recordings from Brain of Adult Drosophila
Published on: July 29, 2007
Molecular Diversity and Specializations among the Cells of the Adult Mouse Brain
Arpiar Saunders1, Evan Z Macosko2, Alec Wysoker1
1Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Abstract:
The mammalian brain is composed of diverse, specialized cell populations. To systematically ascertain and learn from these cellular specializations, we used Drop-seq to profile RNA expression in 690,000 individual cells sampled from 9 regions of the adult mouse brain. We identified 565 transcriptionally distinct groups of cells using computational approaches developed to distinguish biological from technical signals. Cross-region analysis of these 565 cell populations revealed features of brain organization, including a gene-expression module for synthesizing axonal and presynaptic components, patterns in the co-deployment of voltage-gated ion channels, functional distinctions among the cells of the vasculature and specialization of glutamatergic neurons across cortical regions. Systematic neuronal classifications for two complex basal ganglia nuclei and the striatum revealed a rare population of spiny projection neurons. This adult mouse brain cell atlas, accessible through interactive online software (DropViz), serves as a reference for development, disease, and evolution.
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