Cellular repertoires of the song motor pathway of songbirds

Birdsong is powerful model for the neural mechanisms underlying motor skill learning. The success of this model is in part due to the experimental advantages of the song system, the anatomically and functionally discrete neural circuit dedicated to song. Despite a detailed understanding of the physiological and systems levels properties of this circuit, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of what cell types are present in each region of the song system and how these cell types compare to those found in the brains of other vertebrates. Here, we characterize the cellular repertoire of the song motor pathway using single-cell RNA-sequencing. Two song premotor pathway regions, HVC and RA, were dissected from three adult (~200 dph) male Bengalese finches and prepared for single-cell RNA-seq using 10x 3’ v2 RNA-sequencing