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Single-Nucleus Analysis of the Adult Human Olfactory Epithelium Uncovers Shared Neurogenesis Programs with the Brain

ABSTRACT: Neurogenesis, a critical process implicated in diverse brain disorders, is greatly diminished in the adult human brain, complicating direct investigations into its mechanistic role in disease. In the olfactory epithelium (OE), olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) maintain homeostasis via continual neurogenesis throughout life, providing a niche to investigate neurogenesis in vivo. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this process and its similarities to brain neurogenesis remain largely unknown. Here, we performed single-nucleus RNA-seq (snRNA-seq from the human OE of 6 living adult donors, yielding 145,720 high-quality transcriptomics. Integrating with an independent OE dataset from 4 adults, different developmental stages of OSNs were identified, including neural precursor cells (globose basal cells, GBCs), as well as immature and mature OSNs. We inferred trajectories and assessed the transcriptional and regulatory dynamics of OSN development. Genes and transcription factors involved in regulating neuronal differentiation and neurogenesis were highly expressed in GBCs and early immature OSNs, but were downregulated in mature neurons. OSNs and cortical excitatory neurons exhibited convergence during early developmental stages, including dynamically expressed genes, biological processes, transcription factors, as well as polygenic enrichment for psychiatric disorders. In addition, highly matched expression dynamics of autism risk genes between OSNs and cortical excitatory neurons further validated their convergence. Overall, OSNs cells in the olfactory neuroepithelium represent a potential proxy to study gene programs involved in neurogenesis in the human brain, providing an accessible model for investigating neurodevelopmental dysfunction in psychiatric disorders.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE317163 | GEO | 2026/06/25

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Ongoing, lifelong neurogenesis maintains the neuronal population of the olfactory epithelium in the face of piecemeal neuronal turnover and restores it following wholesale loss. The molecular phenotypes corresponding to different stages along the progression from multipotent globose basal cell (GBC) progenitor to differentiated olfactory sensory neuron are poorly characterized. We used the transgenic expression of GFP and cell surface markers to FACS-isolate Sox2-GFP(+) GBCs, Neurog1-GFP(+) GBCs and immature neurons, and OMP-GFP(+) mature neurons from normal adult mice. In addition, the latter two populations were also collected 3 weeks after olfactory bulb ablation, a lesion that results in persistently elevated neurogenesis. Global profiling of mRNA from the populations indicates that all stages of neurogenesis share a cohort of >2100 genes that are upregulated compared to sustentacular cells. A further cohort of >1200 genes are specifically upregulated in GBCs as compared to sustentacular cells and differentiated neurons. The increased rate of neurogenesis caused by olfactory bulbectomy had little effect on the transcriptional profile of the Neurog1-GFP(+) population. In contrast, the abbreviated lifespan of OMP-GFP(+) neurons born in the absence of the bulb correlated with substantial differences in gene expression as compared to the mature neurons of the normal epithelium. Detailed examination of the specific genes upregulated in the different progenitor populations revealed that the chromatin modifying complex proteins LSD1 and coREST were expressed sequentially in upstream Sox2-GFP(+) GBCs and Neurog1-GFP(+) GBCs/immature neurons. The expression patterns of these proteins are dynamically regulated after activation of the epithelium by methyl bromide lesion. Total RNA was isolated from dissected, dissociated and FACS-purified olfactory mucosal cells from normal adult mice or mice 3 weeks after unilateral bulbectomy. Cells were purified with FACS using endogenous GFP fluorescence from various transgenic lines and cell surface labeling. Two to seven adult mice were used per replicate and three replicates per condition were performed using Illumina bead arrays. 21 samples from olfactory mucosa were analyzed in this series and 3 samples were from a commercially available reference RNA sample. Universal mouse reference RNA from Stratagene was used as a general control and Normal olfactory mucosa was used as a tissue specific control.

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Single-Nucleus Analysis of the Adult Human Olfactory Epithelium Uncovers Shared Neurogenesis Programs with the Brain

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