Nguyen Minh Q, Wu Youmei, Bonilla Lauren S, von Buchholtz Lars J, Ryba Nicholas J P
Taste and Smell Section, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2017 Sep 28;12(9):e0185543. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185543. eCollection 2017.
The trigeminal ganglion contains somatosensory neurons that detect a range of thermal, mechanical and chemical cues and innervate unique sensory compartments in the head and neck including the eyes, nose, mouth, meninges and vibrissae. We used single-cell sequencing and in situ hybridization to examine the cellular diversity of the trigeminal ganglion in mice, defining thirteen clusters of neurons. We show that clusters are well conserved in dorsal root ganglia suggesting they represent distinct functional classes of somatosensory neurons and not specialization associated with their sensory targets. Notably, functionally important genes (e.g. the mechanosensory channel Piezo2 and the capsaicin gated ion channel Trpv1) segregate into multiple clusters and often are expressed in subsets of cells within a cluster. Therefore, the 13 genetically-defined classes are likely to be physiologically heterogeneous rather than highly parallel (i.e., redundant) lines of sensory input. Our analysis harnesses the power of single-cell sequencing to provide a unique platform for in silico expression profiling that complements other approaches linking gene-expression with function and exposes unexpected diversity in the somatosensory system.
三叉神经节包含躯体感觉神经元，这些神经元可检测一系列热、机械和化学信号，并支配头颈部独特的感觉区域，包括眼睛、鼻子、嘴巴、脑膜和触须。我们使用单细胞测序和原位杂交技术来研究小鼠三叉神经节的细胞多样性，确定了13个神经元簇。我们发现这些簇在背根神经节中高度保守，这表明它们代表了躯体感觉神经元的不同功能类别，而非与其感觉靶点相关的特化。值得注意的是，功能重要的基因（如机械感觉通道Piezo2和辣椒素门控离子通道Trpv1）分散在多个簇中，并且通常在一个簇内的细胞亚群中表达。因此，这13个基因定义的类别在生理上可能是异质性的，而不是高度平行（即冗余）的感觉输入线路。我们的分析利用单细胞测序的能力，为计算机模拟表达谱提供了一个独特的平台，该平台补充了将基因表达与功能联系起来的其他方法，并揭示了躯体感觉系统中意想不到的多样性。
