Analysis of the transcriptional and translational profile of agrp neurons

Abstract

Agrp neurons are a small population of neurons in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus known to drive feeding behavior. They are sensitive to hormones such as leptin, ghrelin, and insulin, and play a central role in the regulation of energy homeostasis. Even still, there is a need to understand how Agrp neurons work at the transcriptional and translational levels in scenarios of altered energy balance, e.g. deprivation of food for long periods of time. In this work, we investigated the transcriptome of Agrp neurons using public datasets of single-cell RNA-Seq and the translatome of Agrp neurons using the RiboTag strategy. The latter was coupled with RNA-Seq to obtain a read-out of Agrp neuron-specific mRNAs bounded to the ribosome upon food deprivation. We have identified pathways and biological processes enriched in both levels of regulation as well as shared genes and their function. Our findings suggest that Agrp neurons use distinct strategies to adapt to food deprivation and dynamically respond to a scenario of negative energy balance.