Fig. 1

Basal soma size characterization of NAc-projecting VTA DA neurons. a. TH-Cre or DAT Cre-mice received bilateral infusions of retrograde AAV5-DIO-eYFP or –mCherry into the NAc and soma size of VTA DA neurons was analyzed in VTA subregions (interfascicular nucleus (IF), parabrachial pigmented nucleus (PBP), paranigral nucleus (PN), lateral portion of paranigral nucleus (L.PN)) b. Representative images of VTA DA neurons in TH-Cre mice labeled with AAV-DIO-eYFP (green, top) or –mCherry (red, bottom) showing colocalization with TH (white) and soma reconstruction using Volocity (blue). c. VTA DA neurons expressing both fluorophores (FP, eYFP and mCherry) had comparable surface area measurements using either FP construct (n = 8 neurons). d. Basal VTA DA soma size differed between VTA subregions in TH-Cre and DAT-Cre mice, with no differences observed between DA-driver lines. The number of mice in each group is noted within columns, 4–23 neurons were analyzed per mouse. *denotes significant subregion effects in both TH-Cre and DAT-Cre mice (two-way ANOVA, Tukey’s post-hoc test, p < 0.05). e. VTA DA soma size (PN subregion) did not differ between male and female mice. The number of mice in each group is noted within columns and 9–38 neurons were analyzed per mouse (student t-test, n.s., p > 0.05)