Speaker: Chenghang (Chuck) Zong, Associate Professor, Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine

Time: 10:30-11:30 a.m., Aug 5, 2024, GMT+8

Venue: Rm B117, Research Complex #2 , PKU

Abstract: 

Synapses are crucial structures that mediate signal transmission between neurons in complex neural circuits and display considerable morphological and electrophysiological heterogeneity. In this study, we develop a droplet-based single-cell (sc) total-RNA-sequencing platform, called Multiple-Anneal-ing-and-Tailing-based Quantitative seRNA-seq in Droplets, for transcriptome profiling of individual neur-ites, primarily composed of synaptosomes. In the synaptosome transcriptome, or 'synaptome', profiling of both mouse and human brain samples, we detect subclusters among synaptosomes that are associated with neuronal subtypes and characterize the landscape of transcript splicing that occurs within synapses. We extend synaptome profiling to synaptopathy in an Alzheimer's disease (AD) mouse model and discover AD-associated synaptic gene expression changes that cannot be detected by single-nucleus transcriptome profiling. Overall, our results show that this platform provides a high-throughput, single-synaptosome tran-scriptome profiling tool that will facilitate future discoveries in neuroscience.

Source: Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center, PKU