Topographical organization of mammillary neurogenesis and efferent projections in the mouse brain
Yongjie Hou, Qi Zhang, Hongzhi Liu, Jinyun Wu, Yun Shi, Yanqing Qi, Mengmeng Shao, Zhengang Yang, Jiangteng Lu, Zhuhao Wu, Ling Gong, Miao He
Abstract
mammillary progenitors generate mammillary neurons in a rostral-dorsal-lateral to caudal-ventral-medial fashion. Axonal tracing from different temporal cohorts of labeled mammillary neurons reveal their topographical organization. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering based on intrinsic properties further identify two distinct neuronal clusters independent of birthdates in the medial nuclei. In addition, we generate Fezf2 knockout mice and observe the smaller mammillary body with largely normal anatomy and mildly affected cellular electrophysiology, in contrast to more severe deficits in neuronal differentiation and projection in many other brain regions. These results indicate that Fezf2 may function differently in the mammillary body. Our results provide important insights for mammillary development and connectivity.