Molecular and spatial profiling of the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus
- National Institute of Mental Health, United States
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, United States
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, United States
Abstract
The paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) is known to regulate various cognitive and behavioral processes. However, while functional diversity among PVT circuits has often been linked to cellular differences, the molecular identity and spatial distribution of PVT cell types remains unclear. To address this gap, here we used single nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) and identified five molecularly distinct PVT neuronal subtypes in the mouse brain. Additionally, multiplex fluorescent in situ hybridization of top marker genes revealed that PVT subtypes are organized by a combination of previously unidentified molecular gradients. Lastly, comparing our dataset with a recently published single-cell sequencing atlas of thalamus yielded novel insight into the PVT's connectivity with cortex, including unexpected innervation of auditory and visual areas. This comparison also revealed that our data contains a largely non-overlapping transcriptomic map of multiple midline thalamic nuclei. Collectively, our findings uncover previously unknown features of the molecular diversity and anatomical organization of the PVT and provide a valuable resource for future investigations.
Data availability
All RNA-seq data generated in our study have been deposited into the Gene Expression Omnibus repository (GSE208707). Raw images of RNAscope experiments are publicly available at: https://figshare.com/s/e2918829cabfdd0392fb.
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Molecular and spatial profiling of the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamusNCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE208707.
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Transcriptomic atlas of thalamic nucleiNCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE133911.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institute of Mental Health (1ZIAMH002950)
- Mario A Penzo
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (ZIANS003153)
- Ariel J Levine
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All procedures were performed in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and were approved by the National Institute of Mental Health Animal Care and Use Committee. (See Methods - Mice)
Copyright
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
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