The researchers of the Molecular Neuroprotection Group of the National Paraplegic Hospital, a center of the Health Service of Castile-La Mancha, have prepared a Transcriptomic atlas of the lumbar segment of the spinal cord in mice adult providing detailed view … of the cellular diversity of this critical region for motor and sensory control.
“A transcriptomic atlas is a kind of molecular guide It maps which genes are activated in each cell type, in each tissue or organ and in different states: healthy, sick, stages of developmentetc.”, explains the head of this work, Pablo Ruiz-Amezcua, which made the cover of the scientific journal BioTech and which constitutes a reference resource for the international neuroscientific community.
The team, part of the Castilla-La Mancha Health Research Institute (Idiscam), analyzed more than 86,000 cell nuclei from 16 samples collected in five previous studies.
Through advanced RNA sequencing techniques and the use of powerful computational tools, they managed to distinguish all major cell families present in the spinal cord, such as neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and microglia, and even described 17 different neuronal subtypes with an unprecedented level of detail.
The contribution of “silent genes”
Silent genes are those that, although part of the DNA, are not actively expressed to produce a protein, remaining inactive or “off”, essential for cellular regulation and other functions.
The main novelty of the study lies in systematic inclusion of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) – such as ncRNAs and pseudogenes – in clustering and marker analyses. Although these ncRNAs represent only about ten percent of the information recorded per cell, their expression has been shown to be very specific for certain cell types, acting as key markers to differentiate them.
“By integrating the non-coding fraction of the transcriptome, we detected cellular identity signals that are not observed when analyzing only coding genes,” explains Pablo Ruiz-Amezcua. “This atlas provides a starting point for future research into spinal cord plasticity, injury and regeneration.”
A resource for the scientific community
In addition to providing a reference photograph of healthy tissues, this transcriptomic atlas provides reproducible data and scripts that can be reused in research on spinal cord injuries, epidural stimulation or neurodegenerative diseases.
“This is a valuable resource for deciphering the enormous complexity of the central nervous system and directing new lines of research,” concludes Amezcua.
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