SH3 And Cysteine Rich Domain Protein 2 (STAC2)

Deciphering the precise in vivo function of a particular neuronal subpopulation is one of the most challenging issues in neurobiology. Dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons represent a powerful model system to address this fundamental question. STAC1 and STAC2 being expressed in a mutually exclusive fashion in adult DRG neurons.

STAC1 mainly marks peptidergic nociceptive neurons while STAC2 is expressed in a subset of nonpeptidergic nociceptors, in all trkB+ neurons and in a subpopulation of proprioceptive neurons. STAC proteins identify four categories of primary sensory neurons; one class of peptidergic neurons, a subset of nonpeptidergic neurons, all TrkB+neurons and a subset of proprioceptive neurons.