Single-Cell Transcriptomic Evidence for Dense Intracortical Neuropeptide Networks

Seeking new insights into the homeostasis, modulation and plasticity of cortical synaptic networks, we have analyzed results from a single-cell RNA-seq study of 22,439 mouse neocortical neurons. Our analysis exposes transcriptomic evidence for dozens of molecularly distinct neuropeptidergic modulatory networks that directly interconnect all cortical neurons. This evidence begins with a discovery that transcripts of one or more neuropeptide precursor (NPP) and one or more neuropeptide-selective G-protein-coupled receptor (NP-GPCR) genes are highly abundant in all, or very nearly all, cortical neurons. Individual neurons express diverse subsets of NP signaling genes from palettes encoding 18 NPPs and 29 NP-GPCRs. These 47 genes comprise 37 cognate NPP/NP-GPCR pairs, implying the likelihood of local neuropeptide signaling. Here we use neuron-type-specific patterns of NP gene expression to offer specific, testable predictions regarding 37 peptidergic neuromodulatory networks that may play prominent roles in cortical homeostasis and plasticity. Impact Single-cell mRNA sequencing data from mouse neocortex expose evidence for peptidergic neuromodulatory networks that locally interconnect every cortical neuron Data Highlights

Download data

• Downloaded 2,558 times
• Download rankings, all-time:
  • Site-wide: 2,436 out of 89,568
  • In neuroscience: 330 out of 15,928
• Year to date:
  • Site-wide: 15,204 out of 89,568
• Since beginning of last month:
  • Site-wide: 25,813 out of 89,568

Altmetric data

Downloads over time

Distribution of downloads per paper, site-wide