Not all that is gold glitters: PV-IRES-Cre mouse line shows low efficiency of labeling of parvalbumin interneurons in the perirhinal cortex

Abstract

The wide diversity of cortical inhibitory neuron types populating the cortex allows the assembly of diverse microcircuits and endows these circuits with different computational properties. Thus, characterizing neuronal diversity is fundamental to describe the building blocks of cortical microcircuits and probe their function. To this purpose, the mouse has emerged as a powerful tool to genetically label and manipulate specific inhibitory cell-types in the mammalian brain. Among these cell-types, the parvalbumin-expressing interneuron type (PV-INs) is perhaps the most characterized. Several mouse lines have been generated to target PV-INs. Among these mouse lines, the PV-IRES-Cre lines is the most widely used and demonstrated a high specificity and efficiency in targeting PV-INs in different cortical areas. However, a characterization of the performance across cortical regions is still missing. Here we show that the PV-IRES-Cre mouse line labels only a fraction of parvalbumin immunoreactive neurons in perirhinal cortex and other association areas. Our results point to a yet uncharacterized diversity within the PV-INs and emphasize the need to characterize these tools in specific cortical areas.