We performed a comprehensive molecular census of the dorsal root ganglion by analyzing 622 single neurons. We found 11 distinct types of sensory neurons, and were able to map them back to the tissue using combinatorial immunohistochemistry.

From the abstract: “Confirming previously anticipated major neuronal types, our results also classify and provide markers for new, functionally distinct subtypes. For example, our results suggest that itching during inflammatory skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis is linked to a distinct itch-generating type. We demonstrate single-cell RNA-seq as an effective strategy for dissecting sensory responsive cells into distinct neuronal types. The resulting catalog illustrates the diversity of sensory types and the cellular complexity underlying somatic sensation.”

Unbiased classification of sensory neuron types by large-scale single-cell RNA sequencing
Published in Nature Neuroscience (PDF)