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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Mar 3.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Neurosci. 2020 Jun 15;23(8):968–980. doi: 10.1038/s41593-020-0657-z

Figure 1. Retrograde mapping of neurotransmitter-specific inputs to the VTA.

Figure 1.

(a) Illustration of CAV2-FLEX-ZsGreen injection into the VTA (gray circles) and retrograde transport. Note: all cells projecting to the VTA can take up the CAV2 virus, but only neurons of a designated cell type based on Cre expression can turn on ZsGreen expression (gray cells). (b) Atlas illustrations and example images of ZsGreen-labeled cells (Vglut1-expressing, light blue; Vgat-expressing red, Scale bar 100μm). (c) Cell counts normalized to the total number of labeled neurons per mouse in identified brain regions from Vgat (red) or Vglut (blue) Cre-driver lines (Vgat n=11 mice, Vglut1 n=4; Vglut2 n=10; Vglut3 n=5). (d) Total cell counts across the entire brain for each neurotransmitter phenotype (Vgat n=11 mice, Vglut1 n=4; Vglut2 n=10; Vglut3 n=5, 5-HT n=13, Ach n=4; One-way ANOVA F(5, 41)=60.62 p<0.0001, ***p<0.001 Tukey’s multiple comparisons). (e-f) Representative images of retrogradely labeled Vgat (a) and Vglut (b) cells in indicated regions, (Scale bars 50 μm) and heatmaps illustrating cell counts along the rostral-caudal axis (y-axis) in each region (x-axis). (g) Cell density map illustrating relative number and location of projection neurons. Error bars represent s.e.m. List of abbreviations: OFC: orbitofrontal cortex, mPFC: medial prefrontal cortex, Cingulate: cingulate cortex, DStr: dorsal striatum, NAc Core: nucleus accumbens core, NAc Shell: nucleus accumbens shell, LSI: lateral septum intermediate, LSV: lateral septum ventral, VP: ventral pallidum, HDB/VDB: horizontal diagonal band/vertical diagonal band, BNST: bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, MPO: medial preoptic nucleus, MPA: medial preoptic area, LPO: lateral preoptic area, SI: substantia inominata, ZI: zona incerta, LH: lateral hypothalamic area, PH: posterior hypothalamic area, BMA: basomedial amygdala, MEA: medial amygdala, DM: dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus, VTA: ventral tegmental area, RRF: retrorubral field, PAG: periaquiductal gray, DR: dorsal raphe nulceus, PPTg: pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus, LDTg: laterodorsal tegmental nucleus, LPB: lateral parabrachial nucleus, MPB: medial parabrachial nucleus, LC: locus coeruleus.