The emergence of transcriptional identity in somatosensory neurons

Abstract

Over a dozen morphologically and physiologically distinct primary somatosensory neuron subtypes report salient features of our internal and external environments. How specialized gene expression programs emerge during development to endow somatosensory neuron subtypes with their unique properties is unclear. To assess the developmental progression of transcriptional maturation of each principal somatosensory neuron subtype, we generated a transcriptomic atlas of cells traversing the primary somatosensory neuron lineage. We found that somatosensory neurogenesis gives rise to neurons in a transcriptionally unspecialized state, characterized by co-expression of transcription factors (TFs) that become restricted to select subtypes as development proceeds. Single cell transcriptomic analyses of sensory neurons from mutant mice lacking TFs suggest that these broad-to-restricted TFs coordinate subtype-specific gene expression programs in the subtypes where their expression is maintained. We also define a role for neuronal targets for TF expression as disruption of the prototypic target-derived neurotrophic factor NGF leads to aberrant subtype-restricted patterns of TF expression. Our findings support a model in which cues emanating from intermediate and final target fields promote neuronal diversification in part by transitioning cells from a transcriptionally unspecialized state to transcriptionally distinct subtypes through modulating selection of subtype-restricted TFs.