Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Matters Arising
  • Published:

Reply to: Methodological concerns and lack of evidence for single-synapse RNA-seq

The Original Article was published on 27 July 2023

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Consistent pseudo-bulk synaptic transcriptomes observed between sorting-based and gradient centrifugation-based approaches.

References

  1. Hobson, B. D. & Herzog, E. Methodological concerns and lack of evidence for single-synapse RNA-seq. Nat. Biotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01877-7 (2023).

  2. Niu, M. et al. Droplet-based transcriptome profiling of individual synapses. Nat. Biotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-022-01635-1 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Hafner, A.-S., Donlin-Asp, P. G., Leitch, B., Herzog, E. & Schuman, E. M. Local protein synthesis is a ubiquitous feature of neuronal pre- and postsynaptic compartments. Science 364, eaau3644 (2019).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Gray, E. G. & Whittaker, V. P. The isolation of nerve endings from brain: an electron-microscopic study of cell fragments derived by homogenization and centrifugation. J. Anat. 96, 79–88.8 (1962).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Telis, V. R. N., Telis-Romero, J., Mazzotti, H. B. & Gabas, A. L. Viscosity of aqueous carbohydrate solutions at different temperatures and concentrations. Int. J. Food Prop. 10, 185–195 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Villasana, L. E., Klann, E. & Tejada-Simon, M. V. Rapid isolation of synaptoneurosomes and postsynaptic densities from adult mouse hippocampus. J. Neurosci. Methods 158, 30–36 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Chen, X., Wu, X., Wu, H. & Zhang, M. Phase separation at the synapse. Nat. Neurosci. 23, 301–310 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Suzuki, A. et al. Astrocyte–neuron lactate transport is required for long-term memory formation. Cell 144, 810–823 (2011).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Williams, C. et al. Transcriptome analysis of synaptoneurosomes identifies neuroplasticity genes overexpressed in incipient Alzheimer’s disease. PLoS ONE 4, e4936 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Nolan, J. P. Flow cytometry of extracellular vesicles: potential, pitfalls, and prospects. Curr. Protoc. Cytom. 73, 13.14.1–13.14.16 (2015).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Savage, J. C., Picard, K., Gonzalez-Ibanez, F. & Tremblay, M. E. A brief history of microglial ultrastructure: distinctive features, phenotypes, and functions discovered over the past 60 years by electron microscopy. Front. Immunol. 9, 803 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Schürmann, M., Scholze, J., Müller, P., Guck, J. & Chan, C. J. Cell nuclei have lower refractive index and mass density than cytoplasm. J. Biophotonics 9, 1068–1076 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Steelman, Z. A., Eldridge, W. J., Weintraub, J. B. & Wax, A. Is the nuclear refractive index lower than cytoplasm? Validation of phase measurements and implications for light scattering technologies. J. Biophotonics 10, 1714–1722 (2017).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Hobson, B. D. & Sims, P. A. Critical analysis of particle detection artifacts in synaptosome flow cytometry. eNeuro 6, ENEURO.0009-19.2019 (2019).

  15. Akerman, K. E. & Heinonen, E. Qualitative measurements of cytosolic calcium ion concentration within isolated guinea pig nerve endings using entrapped arsenazo III. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 732, 117–121 (1983).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Raiteri, M., Sala, R., Fassio, A., Rossetto, O. & Bonanno, G. Entrapping of impermeant probes of different size into nonpermeabilized synaptosomes as a method to study presynaptic mechanisms. J. Neurochem. 74, 423–431 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Bolognani, F. & Perrone-Bizzozero, N. I. RNA–protein interactions and control of mRNA stability in neurons. J. Neurosci. Res. 86, 481–489 (2008).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Wilhelm, B. G. et al. Composition of isolated synaptic boutons reveals the amounts of vesicle trafficking proteins. Science 344, 1023–1028 (2014).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

M.N. and C.Z. wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chenghang Zong.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

M.N. and C.Z. are cofounders and equity holders of Pioneer Genomics Inc.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Biotechnology thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Niu, M., Zong, C. Reply to: Methodological concerns and lack of evidence for single-synapse RNA-seq. Nat Biotechnol 41, 1225–1228 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01878-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01878-6

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing