Transcriptional characterization of mouse and rat ventral pallidum using single nucleus RNA-sequencing

The ventral pallidum (VP) was defined as a basal ganglia nucleus and a major output of the nucleus accumbens. It is known to be involved in motivated behaviors, including feeding. We sought to further characterize VP by sequencing the RNA from individual nuclei in mouse and rat VP and analyzing neuronal expression patterns. We also investigated the impact of a high-fat diet on VP transcription. These data will be useful for understanding cell type diversity in VP, homology between mouse and rat VP, and the impact of diet on VP gene expression. Overall design: We microdissected VP tissue from adult male and female mice and rats. We also dissected tissue from the nucleus accumbens in rats. We pooled tissue from all subjects in each experimental group, isolated nuclei, prepared cDNA libraries with 10x Chromium Next Gem Single Cell 3' v3.1 (Dual Index) kits, and sequenced on Illumina platforms. Our mouse experimental groups were high-fat diet (2 weeks), control (standard facility chow, 2 weeks), high-fat diet (5 weeks), and matched diet (5 weeks). All 4 rat libraries contain tissue from the same 4 rats; nuclei from each dissection region were split into two separate batches.