Molecular states underlying neuronal cell type development and plasticity in the postnatal whisker cortex.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Biology
• Systems Neuroscience

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 the role of sensory experience in regulating neuronal cell type development and gene expression in wS1.

Main Methods:

• Transcriptomic atlas generation of wS1 across postnatal development.
• Analysis of gene expression and neuronal type composition.
• Whisker deprivation experiments (full-face and competitive) to assess sensory experience impact.

Main Results:

• Identified 45 molecularly distinct neuronal types in wS1, grouped into excitatory and inhibitory subclasses.
• Observed subclass-specific gene regulation between postnatal days 12 and 22 under normal whisker experience.
• Found that layer 2/3 glutamatergic neuron composition changes, similar to the visual cortex, but this maturation is largely independent of sensory experience in wS1.

Conclusions:

• Neuronal cell type development in wS1 shares similarities with the visual cortex but is robust to sensory deprivation.
• Sensory experience has a minimal impact on wS1 cell type maturation, although short-term deprivation can moderately alter plasticity-related gene expression.