Detailed Analysis of Dorsal-Ventral Gradients of Gene Expression in the Hippocampus of Adult Rats

Abstract

We performed RNA sequencing of the dorsal and ventral parts of the hippocampus and compared it with previously published data to determine the differences in the dorsoventral gradients of gene expression that may result from biological or technical variability. Our data suggest that the dorsal and ventral parts of the hippocampus differ in the expression of genes related to signaling pathways mediated by classical neurotransmitters (glutamate, GABA, monoamines, etc.) as well as peptide and Wnt ligands. These hippocampal parts also diverge in the expression of axon-guiding molecules (both receptors and ligands) and splice isoforms of genes associated with intercellular signaling and cell adhesion. Furthermore, analysis of differential expressions of genes specific for astrocytes, microglia, oligodendrocytes, and vascular cells suggests that non-neuronal cells may also differ in the characteristics between hippocampal parts. Analysis of expression of transposable elements showed that depletion of ribosomal RNA strongly increased the representation of transposable elements in the RNA libraries and helped to detect a weak predominance of expression of these elements in the ventral hippocampus. Our data revealed new molecular dimensions of functional differences between the dorsal and ventral hippocampus and points to possible cascades that may be involved in the longitudinal organization of the hippocampus.