There is ample evidence that NTS neurons directly project to the PBC (Bianchi et al., 1995; Dutschmann et al., 2008; Roman et al., 2016; Song et al., 2011) and our results suggest that the Atoh1-lineage PBC neurons are necessary to prevent respiratory depression in response to hypoxia. The gene discussed is ATOH1; the disease is Respiratory insufficiency due to muscle weakness.