Cellular-resolution gene expression mapping reveals organization in the head ganglia of the gastropod, Berghia stephanieae. Berghia stephanieae

Gastropod molluscs such as Aplysia, Lymnaea, and Tritonia have been important for determining fundamental rules of motor control, learning, and memory because of their large, individually identifiable neurons. Yet for the vast majority of gastropod neurons, as well as glia, there are no established molecular markers, limiting the ability to establish brain-wide structure-function relations. Three bulk brain transcriptomes were produced to create a brain-enriched reference transcriptome, and the 10X Genomics Chromium platform was used to perform single-cell RNA sequencing on methanol fixed cells from 20 adult Berghia stephanieae head ganglia. The head ganglia were divided into 2 samples: rhinophore ganglia and central ring ganglia (including the cerebral-pleural, pedal and buccal ganglia).