TY - JOUR TI - Mapping the transcriptional diversity of genetically and anatomically defined cell populations in the mouse brain AU - Sugino, Ken AU - Clark, Erin AU - Schulmann, Anton AU - Shima, Yasuyuki AU - Wang, Lihua AU - Hunt, David L AU - Hooks, Bryan M AU - Tränkner, Dimitri AU - Chandrashekar, Jayaram AU - Picard, Serge AU - Lemire, Andrew L AU - Spruston, Nelson AU - Hantman, Adam W AU - Nelson, Sacha B A2 - Dulac, Catherine A2 - Ponting, Chris P A2 - Sestan, Nenad VL - 8 PY - 2019 DA - 2019/04/12 SP - e38619 C1 - eLife 2019;8:e38619 DO - 10.7554/eLife.38619 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.38619 AB - Understanding the principles governing neuronal diversity is a fundamental goal for neuroscience. Here, we provide an anatomical and transcriptomic database of nearly 200 genetically identified cell populations. By separately analyzing the robustness and pattern of expression differences across these cell populations, we identify two gene classes contributing distinctly to neuronal diversity. Short homeobox transcription factors distinguish neuronal populations combinatorially, and exhibit extremely low transcriptional noise, enabling highly robust expression differences. Long neuronal effector genes, such as channels and cell adhesion molecules, contribute disproportionately to neuronal diversity, based on their patterns rather than robustness of expression differences. By linking transcriptional identity to genetic strains and anatomical atlases, we provide an extensive resource for further investigation of mouse neuronal cell types. KW - neuronal diversity KW - cell types KW - RNA-seq KW - homeobox transcription factors KW - long genes JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -