The inner ear spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) transmit sound information to brainstem. Although recent single-cell RNA sequencing studies confirm that SGNs are heterogeneous for different physiological functions, much remains to be known about their general transcriptomes, especially what genes are specifically expressed in SGNs but not in other inner ear cell types. Using RNA sequencing of pooled SGN neurons that are genetically labelled with tdtomato and manually picked at different developmental ages, we found many new genes that are specifically expressed in SGNs from embryonic to adult ages. We further generated knock-in mouse strains for two of these specific genes:Scrt2 and Celf4, Scrt2-P2A-tdtomato and Celf4-3xHA-P2A-iCreER-T2A-EGFP. Comprehensive analysis with those two strains confirmed quality of our transcriptome data. Those SGN specific genes may be critical for SGN development and function. In addition, two mouse strains can be used to sort or genetically label SGNs or other neurons in brain. SOURCE: Ken SuginoNeuroSeq Janelia Research Campus

Pluto Bioinformatics

GSE132925: Comprehensive transcriptome analysis of cochlear spiral ganglion neurons at multiple ages