A subpopulation of deep cerebellar nuclei glutamatergic neurons contributes to cerebellar control of satiation

We profiled micro-dissected deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN) from 2-3 month old mice for single-nucleus RNAseq to study the cellular populations present in the region and in particular, to define the molecular subtype identity of glutamatergic neurons. From our data, we isolated vGluT2-expressing transcriptomes and identified a graded and anti-correlated expression of two sets of genes associated with the first principal component (PC1) in our dataset, defining separate cell populations. Multiplexed in situ hybridization analysis confirmed the nonoverlapping expression patterns and revealed their topography within the DCN. We then probed the function of these neurons in further experiments and found that one of the two populations was associated with food intake. Our broader study defines a conserved satiation centre and neural mechanism that may represent a novel therapeutic target for the management of excessive eating. Overall design: Single-nuclei RNA sequencing of mouse deep cerebellar nuclei