Neocortical Layer 6B as a Remnant of the Subplate - A Morphological Comparison

Marx, Manuel; Feldmeyer, Dirk; Kilb, Werner; Luhmann, Heiko J.; Qi, Guanxiao; Hanganu-Opatz, Ileana L.

doi:10.1093/cercor/bhv279

Journal Article

FZJ-2017-05660

Neocortical Layer 6B as a Remnant of the Subplate - A Morphological Comparison

Marx, M.FZJ* ; Qi, G.FZJ* ; Hanganu-Opatz, I. L. ; Kilb, W. ; Luhmann, H. J. ; Feldmeyer, D. (Corresponding author)FZJ*

2017
Oxford Univ. Press Oxford

Cerebral cortex 27(2), 1011-1026 (2017) [10.1093/cercor/bhv279]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1093/cercor/bhv279

Abstract: The fate of the subplate (SP) is still a matter of debate. The SP and layer 6 (which is ontogenetically the oldest and innermostneocortical lamina) develop coincidentally. Yet, the function of sublamina 6B is largely unknown. It has been suggested that itconsists partly of neurons from the transient SP, however, experimental evidence for this hypothesis is still missing. To obtainfirst insights into the neuronal complement of layer 6B in the somatosensory rat barrel cortex, we used biocytin stainings of SPneurons (aged 0–4 postnatal days, PND) and layer 6B neurons (PND 11–35) obtained during in vitro whole-cell patch-clamprecordings. Neurons were reconstructed for a quantitative characterization of their axonal and dendritic morphology. An unsupervised cluster analysis revealed that the SP and layer 6B consist of heterogeneous but comparable neuronal cell populations. Both contain 5 distinct spine-bearing cell types whose relative fractions change with increasing age. Pyramidal cells were more prominent in layer 6B, whereas non-pyramidal neurons were less frequent. Because of the high morphological similarity of SP and layer 6B neurons, we suggest that layer 6B consists of persistent non-pyramidal neurons from the SP and cortical L6B pyramidal neurons.

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