Identification of visual cortex cell types and species differences using single-cell RNA sequencing

The primate neocortex exerts high cognitive ability and strong information processing capacity. Here, we establish a single-cell RNA sequencing dataset of 133,454 macaque visual cortical cells. It covers major cortical cell classes including 25 excitatory neuron types, 37 inhibitory neuron types and all glial cell types. We identified layer-specific markers including HPCAL1 and NXPH4, and also identified two cell types, an NPY-expressing excitatory neuron type that expresses the dopamine receptor D3 gene; and a primate specific activity-dependent OSTN + sensory neuron type. Comparisons of our dataset with humans and mice show that the gene expression profiles differ between species in relation to genes that are implicated in the synaptic plasticity and neuromodulation of excitatory neurons. The comparisons also revealed that glutamatergic neurons may be more diverse across species than GABAergic neurons and non-neuronal cells. These findings pave the way for understanding how the primary cortex fulfills the high-cognitive functions.