Quantitative Census of Local Somatic Features in Mouse Visual Cortex

Abstract

AbstractMammalian neocortex contains a highly diverse set of cell types. These types have been mapped systematically using a variety of molecular, electrophysiological and morphological approaches. Each modality offers new perspectives on the variation of biological processes underlying cell type specialization. While many morphological surveys focus on branching patterns of individual cells, fewer have been devoted to sub-cellular structure of cells. Electron microscopy (EM) provides dense ultrastructural examination and an unbiased perspective into the subcellular organization of brain cells, including their synaptic connectivity and nanometer scale morphology. Here we present the first systematic survey of the somatic region of nearly 100,000 cortical cells, using quantitative features obtained from EM. This analysis demonstrates a surprising sufficiency of the perisomatic region to recapitulate many known aspects of cortical organization, while also revealing novel relationships. Parameters of cell size, nuclear infolding and somatic synaptic innervation co-vary with distinct patterns across depth and between types. Further, we describe how these subcellular features can be used to create highly accurate predictions of cell-types across large scale EM datasets. More generally, our results suggest that the shifts in cellular physiology and molecular programming seen across cell types accompany profound differences in the fine-scale structure of cells.