Interneuron Diversity: How Form Becomes Function

A persistent question in neuroscience is how early neuronal subtype identity is established during the development of neuronal circuits. Despite significant progress in the transcriptomic characterization of cortical interneurons, the mechanisms that control the acquisition of such identities as well as how they relate to function are not clearly understood. Accumulating evidence indicates that interneuron identity is achieved through the interplay of intrinsic genetic and activity-dependent programs. In this work, we focus on how progressive interactions between interneurons and pyramidal cells endow maturing interneurons with transient identities fundamental for their function during circuit assembly and how the elimination of transient connectivity triggers the consolidation of adult subtypes.