Peripheral nervous system has intrinsic regeneration ability after injury, accompanied with the coordination of numerous cells, molecules and signaling pathways. These post-injury biological changes are complex with insufficient understanding. Thus, to obtain a global perspective of changes following nerve injury and to elucidate the mechanisms underlying nerve regeneration are of great importance. By RNA sequencing, we detected transcriptional changes in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons at 0 h, 3 h, 9 h,1 d, 4 d and 7 d following sciatic nerve crush injury in rats. Differentially expressed genes were then selected and classified into major clusters according to their expression patterns. Cluster 2 (with genes high expressed before 9 h and then down expressed) and cluster 6 (combination of cluster 4 and 5 with genes low expressed before 1 d and then up expressed) were underwent GO annotation and KEGG pathway analysis. Gene act networks were then constructed for these two clusters and the expression of pivotal genes was validated by quantitative real-time PCR. This study provided valuable information regarding the transcriptome changes in DRG neurons following nerve injury, identified potential genes that could be used for improving axon regeneration after nerve injury, and facilitated to elucidate the biological process and molecular mechanisms underlying peripheral nerve injury. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.