Embryonic and postnatal neurogenesis produce functionally distinct subclasses of dopaminergic neuron
- King's College London, United Kingdom
- Harvard University, United States
Abstract
Most neurogenesis in the mammalian brain is completed embryonically, but in certain areas the production of neurons continues throughout postnatal life. The functional properties of mature postnatally-generated neurons often match those of their embryonically-produced counterparts. However, we show here that in the olfactory bulb (OB), embryonic and postnatal neurogenesis produce functionally distinct subpopulations of dopaminergic (DA) neurons. We define two subclasses of OB DA neuron by the presence or absence of a key subcellular specialisation: the axon initial segment (AIS). Large AIS-positive axon-bearing DA neurons are exclusively produced during early embryonic stages, leaving small anaxonic AIS-negative cells as the only DA subtype generated via adult neurogenesis. These populations are functionally distinct: large DA cells are more excitable, yet display weaker and - for certain long-latency or inhibitory events - more broadly-tuned responses to odorant stimuli. Embryonic and postnatal neurogenesis can therefore generate distinct neuronal subclasses, placing important constraints on the functional roles of adult-born neurons in sensory processing.
Data availability
The data is available at Dryad Digital Repository.
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Data from: Embryonic and postnatal neurogenesis produce functionally distinct subclasses of dopaminergic neuronAvailable at Dryad Digital Repository under a CC0 Public Domain Dedication.
Article and author information
Author details
Venkatesh N Murthy
Funding
Wellcome (103044)
- Elisa Galliano
National Institutes of Health (DC013329)
- Venkatesh N Murthy
European Research Council (725729 FUNCOPLAN)
- Matthew Grubb
Wellcome (88301)
- Matthew Grubb
Medical Research Council (MR/M501645/1)
- Darren J Byrne
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All experiments were performed under the auspices of UK Home Office personal and project licences held by the authors (Project Licenses: 70/7246 and 70/8906), or were within institutional (Harvard University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee; Animal Protocol 29/20)) and USA national guidelines.
Copyright
© 2018, Galliano et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Embryonic and postnatal neurogenesis produce functionally distinct subclasses of dopaminergic neuron
eLife 7:e32373.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.32373
Further reading
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