Fig. 4: Region-specific and age-dependent interactions between septal astrocytes and neurons.
From: Astrocyte specification in the mouse septum is shaped by both developmental origin and local signals
a, Diagram of putative astrocyte–neuron interactions during development. b, CellPhoneDB analysis revealing exclusive ligand–receptor pairs between subclusters of LSNs (purple) with LSAs (red) and subclusters of MSNs (green) with MSAs (blue). Ligands are highlighted in bold (one-sided Wilcoxon’s rank-sum test to assess the statistical significance of each interaction score). c,d, Age-dependent ligand–receptor pairs in MS (c) and LS (d) neurons and astrocytes. Ligands are highlighted in bold. e, Heatmap showing that SHH and FGFs are highly enriched in MSN and LSN subclusters. Asterisks indicate the subclusters most enriched for SHH and FGF family ligands. f, Heatmap showing an age-dependent increase in the expression of SHH and FGFs in MSN3 and LSN6 subclusters, respectively. g,h, MERSCOPE showing SHH (g) and FGF10 (h) expression patterns in P35 septal neurons along the rostrocaudal axis. i,k, Heatmap showing selected SHH (i) or FGF2 (k) downstream genes enriched in P21 MSAs or LSAs. j, Dotplot showing increases in the expression of SHH downstream genes during development. l, Dotplot showing increases in the expression of FGF2 downstream genes during development. m, Schematic of the methods for bulk RNA-seq of immunopanned astrocytes treated with the SHH agonist SAG. n, Volcano plot illustrating differential gene expression between SAG and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) treatments. For DESeq2 analysis, Wald’s test was used to assess the differences between conditions and the Benjamini–Hochberg method for multiple testing (n = 3–4 sample pools for each condition). o, In situ hybridization of Slc6a11 combined with immunostaining for tdTomato in P21 tamoxifen-induced GlastCreER;Ai14 (WT) and GlastCreER;Ptch1fl/fl;Ai14 (Ptch1cKO) mice. Right: the white boxes indicate the selected regions for high-magnification images. The white arrows indicate the recombined astrocytes. Scale bars, 100 µm (left); 10 µm (right). p, Quantification of Slc6a11 puncta number on tdT+ astrocyte nuclei (one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s multiple-comparison test; n = 4 mice, 33–59 astrocytes in each condition). Data are presented as the mean ± s.e.m. *P < 0.05. When P > 0.05, it is NS.
