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A single-cell atlas of the human substantia nigra reveals cell-specific pathways associated with neurological disorders

Abstract:
We describe a human single-nuclei transcriptomic atlas for the substantia nigra (SN), generated by sequencing approximately 17,000 nuclei from matched cortical and SN samples. We show that the common genetic risk for Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with dopaminergic neuron (DaN)-specific gene expression, including mitochondrial functioning, protein folding and ubiquitination pathways. We identify a distinct cell type association between PD risk and oligodendrocyte-specific gene expression. Unlike Alzheimer’s disease (AD), we find no association between PD risk and microglia or astrocytes, suggesting that neuroinflammation plays a less causal role in PD than AD. Beyond PD, we find associations between SN DaNs and GABAergic neuron gene expression and multiple neuropsychiatric disorders. Conditional analysis reveals that distinct neuropsychiatric disorders associate with distinct sets of neuron-specific genes but converge onto shared loci within oligodendrocytes and oligodendrocyte precursors. This atlas guides our aetiological understanding by associating SN cell type expression profiles with specific disease risk.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1038/s41467-020-17876-0

Authors


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Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MSD
Department:
RDM
Role:
Author


Publisher:
Nature Research
Journal:
Nature Communications More from this journal
Volume:
11
Article number:
4183
Publication date:
2020-08-21
Acceptance date:
2020-07-21
DOI:
EISSN:
2041-1723


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
1128288
Local pid:
pubs:1128288
Deposit date:
2020-09-01

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