A Cre-Dependent, Anterograde Transsynaptic Viral Tracer for Mapping Output Pathways of Genetically Marked Neurons

Neurotropic viruses that conditionally infect or replicate in molecularly defined neuronal subpopulations, and then spread trans-synaptically, are powerful tools for mapping neural pathways. Genetically targetable retrograde trans-synaptic tracer viruses are available to map the inputs to specific neuronal subpopulations, but an analogous tool for mapping synaptic outputs is not yet available. Here we describe a Cre recombinase-dependent, anterograde trans-neuronal tracer, based on the H129 strain of herpes simplex virus (HSV). Application of this virus to transgenic or knock-in mice expressing Cre in peripheral neurons of the olfactory epithelium or the retina reveals widespread, polysynaptic labeling of higher-order neurons in the olfactory and visual systems, respectively. Polysynaptic pathways were also labeled from cerebellar Purkinje cells. In each system, the pattern of labeling was consistent with classical circuit-tracing studies, restricted to neurons and anterograde-specific. These data provide proof-of-principle for a conditional, non-diluting anterograde trans-synaptic tracer for mapping synaptic outputs from genetically marked neuronal subpopulations