Fig 3. Microglia activation and prion disease progression.

A Rotarod performance of prion-inoculated mice during disease progression (pre = pre-inoculation). Bars represent the mean latency to fall in 100 seconds. Each dot represents one individual mouse. P-adjusted: P values were calculated with a one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test (*p<0.05; ***p<0.001; compared to 1 wpi). Red: symptomatic phase of disease. Error bars: standard deviation. B Comparison of rotarod performance (latency to fall in 100 seconds) and average log₂FC at the corresponding time point. Lines represent all genes, all DEGs or DEGs that are enriched in the indicated cell type. Error bars: standard error of the means (SEM). C Linear regression analysis between the rotarod performance and the gene expression changes of individual genes. Shown are the most significantly correlating genes that were non-enriched (black), microglia-enriched (red-violet) and neuronal-enriched (violet-blue). Corresponding Bonferroni-corrected p values and slopes of the linear regression analysis are indicated in brackets. D Raincloud plot displaying the slope distribution of the linear regression analysis. The slope between all DEGs and DEGs that are either microglia- or neuron-enriched differs significantly (p < 1*10⁻¹⁴; one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test).