Project description:Peripheral sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and trigeminal ganglion (TG) are specialized to detect and transduce diverse environmental stimuli including touch, temperature, and pain to the central nervous system. Recent advances in single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) have provided new insights into the diversity of sensory ganglia cell types in rodents, non-human primates, and humans, but it remains difficult to compare transcriptomically defined cell types across studies and species. Here, we built cross-species harmonized atlases of DRG and TG cell types that describe 18 neuronal and 11 non-neuronal cell types across 6 species and 31 studies. We then demonstrate the utility of this harmonized reference atlas by using it to annotate newly profiled DRG nuclei/cells from both human and the highly regenerative axolotl. We observe that the transcriptomic profiles of sensory neuron subtypes are broadly similar across vertebrates, but the expression of functionally important neuropeptides and channels can vary notably. The new resources and data presented here can guide future studies in comparative transcriptomics, simplify cell type nomenclature differences across studies, and help prioritize targets for future analgesic development.
Project description:Expression of DREAM in dorsal root ganglia and spinal cord is related to endogenous control mechanisms of acute and chronic pain. In primary sensory trigeminal neurons high levels of endogenous DREAM protein are preferentially localized in the nucleus, suggesting a major transcriptional role. Here, we show that DREAM participates in the control of trigeminal pain perception through the regulation of prodynorphin and BDNF. Furthermore, genome-wide analysis of trigeminal neurons in daDREAM transgenic mice revealed that cathepsin L (CTSL) and the monoglyceride lipase (MGLL) are new DREAM downstream targets and have a role in the regulation of trigeminal nociception.
Project description:Here we studied the NOX2 dependent redox-proteome in dorsal root ganglia in mice. The overall goal was to assess the degree of NOX2-dependent changes in oxidised proteins following exposure to enriched enviroment and sciatic nerve axotomy in dorsal root ganglia.
Project description:The goal of this study was to analyze global gene expression in specific populations of nociceptor sensory neurons, the neurons that detect damaging/noxious stimuli. The dorsal root ganglia (DRG), trigeminal ganglia, and nodose ganglia are anatomically distinct peripheral sensory ganglia that contain nociceptors which innervate skin, gut, lungs, and other distinct organ tissues. We used flow cytometry to purify nociceptors from these ganglia and profiled their global gene expression signatures to compare gene expression between these different anatomically distinct nociceptors. Nav1.8-Cre were bred with Rosa26-TdTomato to generate Nav1.8-Cre/R26-TdTomato reporter progeny, where all peripheral nociceptor neurons are genetically marked with red fluroescence due to specific expression of the TTX- resistant sodium channel Nav1.8. Lumbar region dorsal root ganglia (DRG), trigeminal ganglia, and nodose ganglia were dissected from mice (3 mice were pooled/sample). Highly red fluorescent neurons were Facs purified, RNA extracted, and processed for microarray analysis.