Transcriptomes of individual substantia nigra pars reticulata neurons

Certain neuron types fire spontaneously at high rates, an ability that is crucial for their function in brain circuits. The spontaneously active GABAergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr), a major output of the basal ganglia, provide tonic inhibition of downstream brain areas. A depolarizing "leak" current supports this firing pattern, but its molecular basis remains poorly understood. To understand how SNr neurons maintain tonic activity, we used single-cell RNA sequencing to determine the transcriptome of individual SNr neurons. We discovered that SNr neurons express the sodium leak current, NaLCN and that SNr neurons lacking NaLCN have impaired spontaneous firing. RNA sequencing profiles from 87 GFP-positive GABAergic SNr neurons and 9 GFP-negative SNr cells were carried out. However only 80 samples that passed initial quality control and that were included in the data processing are represented in this record.部分神经元类型可自发放电且频率较高，这一特性对其在脑环路中的功能至关重要。黑质网状部（substantia nigra pars reticulata, SNr）作为基底神经节（basal ganglia）的主要输出核团，其自发放电的γ-氨基丁酸能（GABAergic）神经元可对下游脑区产生紧张性抑制（tonic inhibition）。一种去极化漏电流维持了这类放电模式，但其分子机制目前仍不甚明晰。为解析SNr神经元维持紧张性活动的机制，本研究采用单细胞RNA测序（single-cell RNA sequencing）技术，对单个SNr神经元的转录组（transcriptome）进行了分析。研究发现，SNr神经元表达钠漏电流（sodium leak current, NaLCN），且缺失NaLCN的SNr神经元自发放电功能受损。本研究共对87个绿色荧光蛋白（GFP）阳性的γ-氨基丁酸能SNr神经元及9个GFP阴性的SNr细胞开展了RNA测序分析，但本数据集仅收录了通过初始质量控制（quality control）并纳入数据处理流程的80个样本。