RNA-seq investigating the influence of astrocytes on developing cortical neurons

Astrocytes are implicated in neuronal development, particularly excitatory synaptogenesis, but their genome-wide impact is unclear. Using cell-type specific RNA-seq we show that cortical astrocytes induce widespread transcriptomic changes in developing cortical neurons. Rat cortical neurons were maintained in the presence or absence of mouse astrocytes, RNA-seq performed, and mixed-species RNA-seq reads sorted according to species. Cultures were also treated with TTX to abolish neuronal firing activity, to investigate the effects of the presence or absence activity-dependent signalling.