Leveraging deep single-soma RNA sequencing to explore the neural basis of human somatosensation.

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Yu, Huasheng, Nagi, Saad S, Usoskin, Dmitry, Hu, Yizhou, Kupari, Jussi, Bouchatta, Otmane, Yan, Hanying, Cranfill, Suna Li, Gautam, Mayank, Su, Yijing et al (show 16 more authors) , Lu, You, Wymer, James, Glanz, Max, Albrecht, Phillip, Song, Hongjun, Ming, Guo-Li, Prouty, Stephen, Seykora, John, Wu, Hao, Ma, Minghong, Marshall, Andrew ORCID: 0000-0001-8273-7089, Rice, Frank L, Li, Mingyao, Olausson, Håkan, Ernfors, Patrik and Luo, Wenqin (2024) Leveraging deep single-soma RNA sequencing to explore the neural basis of human somatosensation. Nature neuroscience, 27 (12). pp. 2326-2340. ISSN 1097-6256, 1546-1726

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Abstract

The versatility of somatosensation arises from heterogeneous dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. However, soma transcriptomes of individual human (h)DRG neurons-critical information to decipher their functions-are lacking due to technical difficulties. In this study, we isolated somata from individual hDRG neurons and conducted deep RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to detect, on average, over 9,000 unique genes per neuron, and we identified 16 neuronal types. These results were corroborated and validated by spatial transcriptomics and RNAscope in situ hybridization. Cross-species analyses revealed divergence among potential pain-sensing neurons and the likely existence of human-specific neuronal types. Molecular-profile-informed microneurography recordings revealed temperature-sensing properties across human sensory afferent types. In summary, by employing single-soma deep RNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics, we generated an hDRG neuron atlas, which provides insights into human somatosensory physiology and serves as a foundation for translational work.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Ganglia, Spinal, Neurons, Animals, Humans, Sequence Analysis, RNA, Adult, Female, Male, Sensory Receptor Cells, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing, Transcriptome
Divisions:	Faculty of Health & Life Sciences Faculty of Health & Life Sciences > Inst. Life Courses & Medical Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	18 Nov 2024 08:24
Last Modified:	22 May 2026 20:36
DOI:	10.1038/s41593-024-01794-1
Open Access URL:	https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-024-01794-1
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3188058
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