Molecular profiling of brainstem peptidergic neurons

Hunger is a fundamental drive, evolutionarily hard-wired to ensure that an animal has sufficient energy to survive and reproduce. Just as important as knowing when to eat is for an animal to know when not to eat. Here, using spatially resolved, single cell translational phenotyping and ensemble-level molecular profiling, we characterize a small population of neuropeptidergic neurons in the brainstem's dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) and describe how they regulate appetite. Together, this work identifies a likely conserved cellular mechanism that transforms diverse neurohumoral signals into a key behavioral output. Overall design: Molecular profiling of brainstem peptidergic neurons using viral TRAP (vTRAP) in tandem with high-throughput RNA sequencing.