Extended Data Fig. 10: Neuropeptide distribution across the whole mouse brain.

(a) Scatter plot of Tau score over the number of clusters each neuropeptide is expressed in at the level of log₂(CPM) > 3. The Tau score is a measurement of cell type specificity, which varies from 0 to 1 where 0 means uniformly expressed and 1 means highly specific to one type. (b) Scatter plot of Tau score over the number of clusters each peptide-liganded G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) gene is expressed in at the level of log₂(CPM) > 3. (c) Expression level of neuropeptide in log₂(CPM) per cluster. For each neuropeptide along the Y axis, clusters are sorted from the highest to lowest mean gene expression level along the X axis. (d) Expression level of neuropeptide in log₂(CPM) per cluster. For each neuropeptide along the Y axis, clusters are sorted from the highest to lowest mean gene expression level along the X axis. For each gene, only the top 200 highest-expressing clusters out of 5,322 clusters are shown. (e) Representative MERFISH sections highlighting the spatial location of clusters expressing each of the 20 highly cell-type-specific neuropeptide genes (expressed in 8 or fewer clusters). (f) Representative MERFISH sections showing the expression of the neuropeptides present on the MERFISH gene panel that are widely expressed. We also note that the relationships between mRNA levels, the post-translationally processed peptide levels, and the functional levels are unknown for most neuropeptides, thus, it is difficult to predict what mRNA levels would lead to sufficient functional expression of a given neuropeptide.