{"doi":"10.7554/elife.89338.1","title":"Single cell RNA-seq analysis of spinal locomotor circuitry in larval zebrafish","abstract":"Abstract Identification of the neuronal types that form the specialized circuits controlling distinct behaviors has benefited greatly from the simplicity offered by zebrafish. Electrophysiological studies have shown that additional to connectivity, understanding of circuitry requires identification of functional specializations among individual circuit components, such as those that regulate levels of transmitter release and neuronal excitability. In this study we use single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) to identify molecular distinctions causal to the unique physiology of primary motoneuron (PMn) function, as well as specialized interneurons that are tailored specifically for mediation of the powerful escape response. Transcriptional profiles of larval zebrafish spinal neurons led to our identification of unique combinations of voltage dependent ion channel types and synaptic proteins termed functional ‘cassettes’. These cassettes serve the purpose of generating maximal power output, essential for rapid escape. The ion channel cassette, in particular, acts through promoting high frequency firing of action potentials and augmented transmitter release at the neuromuscular junction. Our analysis highlights the utility of scRNAseq in functional characterization of neuronal circuitry, in addition to providing a gene expression resource for studying cell type diversity.","journal":null,"year":2023,"id":409797,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9342,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1054252,"name":"Hua Wen","orcid":"0009-0009-5326-8741","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1054253,"name":"Paul Brehm","orcid":"0000-0001-7804-5258","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":603288,"name":"Jimmy J. Kelly","orcid":"0009-0007-5807-0676","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":107,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:21:31.144858Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}