Neuron
Volume 53, Issue 5, 1 March 2007, Pages 639-647
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Neurotechnique
Monosynaptic Restriction of Transsynaptic Tracing from Single, Genetically Targeted Neurons

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2007.01.033Get rights and content
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Summary

There has never been a wholesale way of identifying neurons that are monosynaptically connected either to some other cell group or, especially, to a single cell. The best available tools, transsynaptic tracers, are unable to distinguish weak direct connections from strong indirect ones. Furthermore, no tracer has proven potent enough to label any connected neurons whatsoever when starting from a single cell. Here we present a transsynaptic tracer that crosses only one synaptic step, unambiguously identifying cells directly presynaptic to the starting population. Based on rabies virus, it is genetically targetable, allows high-level expression of any gene of interest in the synaptically coupled neurons, and robustly labels connections made to single cells. This technology should enable a far more detailed understanding of neural connectivity than has previously been possible.

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4

Present address: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.

5

Present address: Merck & Co., Inc., West Point, PA 19486, USA.

6

Present address: Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, 17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany.