Establishment of a dopaminergic neuron purification system in mice

Transcriptomic analysis of enriched of neuron population collected from in-vivo mouse brains has been a challenge in the neuroscience field due to its fragility in withstanding harsh condition during isolation and collection process. We established a fluorescent reporter mouse Ddc-hKO1 to facilitate the identification and collection of Ddc-expressing neurons (dopaminergic, serotonergic, cholinergic and adrenergic neurons) by the detection of red fluorescence signals using a FACs. We utilized an improved isolation protocol that ensure high yield and quality of viable neurons during collection that is suitable for RNA-sequencing. This is the first report of transcriptomic profiling of Ddc expressing (hKO1(+)) neurons. Successful collection of Ddc-expressing neurons were verified by gene markers of dopaminergic, serotonergic, cholinergic neurons in hKO1(+) populations while other neuron types in hKO1(-) population. Furthermore, GSEA analysis were performed on both hKO1(+) and hKO1(-) to further support the neuron types collected in respective population. Overall design: mRNA profiles of Ddc-hKO1-positive and Ddc-hKO1-negative neuron cells from around 20,000 cells were used for sequencing.