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Molecular states underlying neuronal cell type development and plasticity in the whisker cortex
Salwan Butrus1, Hannah R Monday2,3, Christopher J Yoo2,3
1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|October 17, 2024
Summary
Sensory experience minimally impacts mouse whisker cortex (wS1) cell development. While gene expression changes occur, whisker deprivation doesn't alter neuronal cell type composition in wS1, unlike in the visual cortex.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Genomics
Background:
- The mouse whisker somatosensory cortex (wS1) is a key model for studying experience-dependent neural plasticity.
- The influence of sensory experience on neuronal cell type development and gene expression in wS1 is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To create a transcriptomic atlas of wS1 during postnatal development.
- To investigate how whisker experience affects the maturation of distinct neuronal cell types from postnatal day 12 to 22.
Main Methods:
- Assembled and annotated a transcriptomic atlas of wS1 with 45 molecularly distinct neuronal types.
- Analyzed gene expression and cell type composition changes under normal and deprived whisker experience conditions.
Main Results:
- Identified ~250 genes regulated in a subclass-specific manner during normal development.
- Found that only Layer 2/3 glutamatergic neuronal types changed composition between P12 and P22.
- Demonstrated that whisker deprivation did not significantly alter transcriptomic identity or composition of L2/3 neuronal types in wS1.
Conclusions:
- Developmental cell type maturation in wS1 shares similarities with the visual cortex (V1).
- Unlike V1, wS1 cell type development is largely independent of sensory experience.
- Sensory deprivation has minimal impact on cell type development in the developing wS1.
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