Abstract
Current technological evolution in the field of gene expression pattern analysis enabled us to improve our ability to reveal the comprehensive single-cell gene expression profiling. This next-generation sequencing technology has been running parallel with single-cell expression analysis to explore the hidden mysteries and complexity of brain cell microenvironment of complex biological systems. However, the whole-genome expression studies involving bulk RNA samples provide ordinary results in a mixed cell population. In contrast, single-cell studies allow more screening in a mixed population to be distinguished and found. Therefore, the analysis of single cell has become a challenging area of modern molecular biology and neuroscience to study the complexity of different regions of the mouse brain by transcriptome profiling. Single-cell RNA-seq has recently been applied to decipher the transcriptomic heterogeneity of neurons in the central nervous system (CNS). The sequencing data sets provide an unprecedented wealth of information about the transcriptomic landscape, the taxonomy, and the molecular signatures of neurons, far beyond cell–cell variability. Herein, an effort has been made to summarize the up-to-date studies that gained deep insight into the molecular diversity of neurons in different regions of mouse CNS.
•Herein, single-cell transcriptomics of the central nervous system are reviewed.•Molecular diversity of neurons is given with suitable examples.•Various applications of single-cell RNA sequencing are discussed.