Spatial transcriptomics reveals D2-associated synaptic transcriptional attenuation in the chronically stressed dorsal striatum

Abstract

Chronic stress alters striatal functions involved in motivation, action selection, and behavioral adaptation, yet cell-type-associated transcriptional organization in the dorsal striatum remains unclear. We used RNAscope-guided GeoMx spatial transcriptomics to compare D1 and D2 neuronal compartments in matched dorsal striatal regions after chronic restraint stress (CRS). CRS engaged both populations and produced comparable numbers of differentially expressed genes. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed partially overlapping CRS-associated pathway attenuation in D1 and D2 neurons, indicating stress-responsive transcriptional organization in both populations. However, D2 responses showed more coherent convergence around receptor-trafficking and synaptic signaling programs, including AMPA receptor trafficking and EPHB-mediated signaling. Moreover, under the same threshold-defined DEG criteria, CRS-downregulated D2 genes resolved into synapse-centered functional annotation categories, including glutamatergic synapse, postsynaptic organization, and dendritic spine, whereas D1 gene sets did not show a comparable pattern. These findings provide a framework for comparing stress-associated D1/D2 transcriptional organization in the dorsal striatum. Graphical abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=179 SRC="FIGDIR/small/737112v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (50K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@a57a73org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@a2cf8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@e6ea0org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@180f997_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG