Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA.
Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
Cell. 2019 Sep 19;179(1):268-281.e13. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.07.042. Epub 2019 Sep 5.
Neuronal cell types are the nodes of neural circuits that determine the flow of information within the brain. Neuronal morphology, especially the shape of the axonal arbor, provides an essential descriptor of cell type and reveals how individual neurons route their output across the brain. Despite the importance of morphology, few projection neurons in the mouse brain have been reconstructed in their entirety. Here we present a robust and efficient platform for imaging and reconstructing complete neuronal morphologies, including axonal arbors that span substantial portions of the brain. We used this platform to reconstruct more than 1,000 projection neurons in the motor cortex, thalamus, subiculum, and hypothalamus. Together, the reconstructed neurons constitute more than 85 meters of axonal length and are available in a searchable online database. Axonal shapes revealed previously unknown subtypes of projection neurons and suggest organizational principles of long-range connectivity.
神经元细胞类型是神经回路的节点，决定了大脑内部信息的流动。神经元形态，尤其是轴突树突的形状，为细胞类型提供了一个基本描述，并揭示了单个神经元如何在大脑中传递其输出。尽管形态学很重要，但在小鼠大脑中，只有少数投射神经元被完整重建。在这里，我们提出了一个强大而高效的成像和重建完整神经元形态的平台，包括跨越大脑大部分区域的轴突树突。我们使用这个平台在运动皮层、丘脑、下托和下丘脑重建了超过 1000 个投射神经元。重建的神经元总长度超过 85 米，可以在一个可搜索的在线数据库中找到。轴突形状揭示了以前未知的投射神经元亚型，并为长程连接的组织原则提供了线索。
