Translational profiling of hypothalamic and midbrain neurons that project to the nucleus accumbens.

Neuroanatomical methods enable high-resolution mapping of neural circuitry, but do not allow systematic molecular profiling of neurons based on their connectivity. Here, we report the development of a novel approach for molecularly profiling projective neurons. We show that ribosomes can be labeled with a camelid nanobody raised against GFP and that this system can be engineered to selectively capture translating mRNAs from cells expressing GFP. We generated a transgenic mouse encoding a nanobody-ribosomal protein fusion (Syn-NBL10) and used a retrograde virus (CAV) encoding GFP to immunoprecipitate ribosomes from projection neurons. This enabled us to profile neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens. The current method provides a new means for profiling neurons based on their projections. Overall design: Translating mRNAs immunoprecipitated from neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens. Each Input and IP sample corrspond to a pooled group of 6 mice.

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Ekstrand MI, Nectow AR, Knight ZA, Latcha KN, Pomeranz LE, Friedman JM