Snapshots in Neuroscience: Dystonia related gene-expressing neurons

These images have been selected to showcase the art that neuroscience research can create.

As described by the authors: “The image shows a whole mount view of the brain from a 14-day old Klhl14-Cre knock-in mouse that was injected with a retrograde adeno-associated virus (AAV) at birth. The injection was performed from the cerebral peduncles to retrogradely label all Klhl14-positive neurons in layer 5 of cortex with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP, green). Note that the entirety of the EGFP signal is in the lateral cortex. The blue pseudocolor represents the brightfield image of the whole brain, provided to illustrate its anatomical outline.

“The restriction of EGFP in the injected brain to lateral cortex agrees with our previously established expression profile of Klhl14, a gene implicated in dystonia. This therefore shows the specificity of Cre expression in this novel mouse line. However, crossing Klhl14-Cre mice with genomic Cre reporter lines did not reproduce this specificity, suggesting broader Cre activity earlier in development. This underscores a key limitation of conventional Cre reporter lines, which lack temporal control over reporting the timing of Cre-dependent expression. Using AAV-mediated labeling, this newly generated mouse line enabled us to trace and analyze a defined subset of developmentally specified layer 5 neurons from early development through maturity.

“After the brain was extracted, this image was taken at 1x magnification on a SMZ 18 fluorescence stereo microscope system (Nikon) with a SOLA-SM Light Engine and Liquid Light Guide for LED-based illumination. The EGFP signal is native fluorescence with no signal enhancement.”

Taken on a stereo microscope system, this whole mount view of a dystonia related (Klhl14)-Cre knock-in mouse brain highlights all cortical layer 5 Klhl14⁺ neurons (EGFP, green). Blue pseudocolor represents the brightfield image of the whole brain. Photo Credit: Alexander Lammers.

Read the full article:

Selective Targeting of a Defined Subpopulation of Corticospinal Neurons Using a Novel Klhl14-Cre Mouse Line Enables Molecular and Anatomical Investigations through Development into Maturity
Jake Lustig, Alexander Lammers, Julia Kaiser, Payal Patel, Aidan Raghu, James M. Conner, Phong Nguyen, Eiman Azim, and Vibhu Sahni