Distinct transcriptional programs define cranial motor neuron subtypes during vertebrate development

Cranial motor neurons (cMNs) exemplify this challenge, forming discrete nuclei that control behaviors as diverse as eye movement, feeding, facial expression, and regulation of visceral organ function. However, the developmental programs that drive cMN target choices and functional specialization have not been comprehensively studied in any vertebrate.

Here, we present an integrated single-cell RNA-sequencing atlas of zebrafish cMN development from 18 to 144 hours post-fertilization, combining FACS-purified cMNs with cMNs computationally extracted from published whole-embryo datasets and perform extensive validation by HCR in situ hybridization.