Sensory coding mechanisms revealed by optical tagging of physiologically defined neuronal types

Abstract

Cell-type identification in neural circuits In many cases, a single molecular marker is insufficient to define a specific cell type and may label a few, or a few hundred, physiologically distinguishable cell types. Lee et al. developed a high-throughput technique, called physiological optical tagging sequencing (PhOTseq), for identifying the expression profile of cells that exhibit a particular physiological profile (see the Perspective by Renninger). They used PhOTseq to identify genes encoding vomeronasal receptors in mice, which detect pheromones and subserve social communication. Science , this issue p. 1384 ; see also p. 1311