Devakinandan G V S, Terasaki Mark, Dani Adish
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad, India.
Department of Cell Biology, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, United States.
Elife. 2024 Dec 13;13:RP98250. doi: 10.7554/eLife.98250.
Specialized chemosensory signals elicit innate social behaviors in individuals of several vertebrate species, a process that is mediated via the accessory olfactory system (AOS). The AOS comprising the peripheral sensory vomeronasal organ has evolved elaborate molecular and cellular mechanisms to detect chemo signals. To gain insight into the cell types, developmental gene expression patterns, and functional differences amongst neurons, we performed single-cell transcriptomics of the mouse vomeronasal sensory epithelium. Our analysis reveals diverse cell types with gene expression patterns specific to each, which we made available as a searchable web resource accessed from https://www.scvnoexplorer.com. Pseudo-time developmental analysis indicates that neurons originating from common progenitors diverge in their gene expression during maturation with transient and persistent transcription factor expression at critical branch points. Comparative analysis across two of the major neuronal subtypes that express divergent GPCR families and the G-protein subunits Gnai2 or Gnao1, reveals significantly higher expression of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) associated genes within Gnao1 neurons. In addition differences in ER content and prevalence of cubic membrane ER ultrastructure revealed by electron microscopy, indicate fundamental differences in ER function.
特殊的化学感觉信号会引发几种脊椎动物个体的先天性社会行为，这一过程是通过副嗅觉系统（AOS）介导的。由外周感觉犁鼻器组成的AOS已经进化出复杂的分子和细胞机制来检测化学信号。为了深入了解细胞类型、发育基因表达模式以及神经元之间的功能差异，我们对小鼠犁鼻感觉上皮进行了单细胞转录组学研究。我们的分析揭示了多种具有各自特定基因表达模式的细胞类型，我们将其作为一个可搜索的网络资源提供，可从https://www.scvnoexplorer.com访问。拟时间发育分析表明，来自共同祖细胞的神经元在成熟过程中基因表达出现分歧，在关键分支点有短暂和持续的转录因子表达。对表达不同GPCR家族以及G蛋白亚基Gnai2或Gnao1的两种主要神经元亚型进行的比较分析显示，Gnao1神经元内内质网（ER）相关基因的表达明显更高。此外，电子显微镜揭示的ER含量差异和立方膜ER超微结构的发生率表明ER功能存在根本差异。
