美国麻省理工学院和哈佛大学广泛研究所Steven A. McCarroll、Fenna M. Krienen研究小组在研究中取得进展。他们揭示了灵长类中间神经元库的革新。这一研究成果在线发表在2020年9月30日的《自然》上。
研究人员利用单核RNA测序分析了三个灵长类动物（人、猕猴和狨）、啮齿动物（小鼠）和鼬鼠（雪貂）188,776个跨同源脑区单个中间神经元的RNA表达。同源中间神经元类型很容易利用RNA表达模式区分，它们在雪貂、小鼠和灵长类动物中的丰度和RNA表达差异很大，但在灵长类动物中差异较小。在任何一个物种中，只有少量的基因作为特定中间神经元亚型的“标记”，而在另一个物种中，则只有这一特性。在灵长类动物新皮层中，数十种基因在相同类型的中间神经元之间显示出空间表达梯度，这表明皮质环境中的区域变化塑造了成年新皮质中间神经元的RNA表达模式。
研究发现，以前与小鼠海马体有关的中间神经元类型（具有神经胶质特征的“ ivy细胞”）在人类、猕猴和狨的新皮层中已变得很丰富，但在小鼠或雪貂中却不是。研究人员还发现了一个显著的皮质下革新：灵长类动物中丰富的纹状体中间神经元类型在小鼠或雪貂中没有同源的分子对应物。这些中间神经元表达编码转录因子、受体和神经肽基因的独特组合，并占据了约30％的猴和人类纹状体中间神经元。
据了解，起源于约9000万年前、拥有共同祖先的灵长类动物和啮齿动物在行为和认知能力上表现出显著的差异。这些差异的细胞基础尚不清楚。
附：英文原文
Title: Innovations present in the primate interneuron repertoire
Author: Fenna M. Krienen, Melissa Goldman, Qiangge Zhang, Ricardo C. H. del Rosario, Marta Florio, Robert Machold, Arpiar Saunders, Kirsten Levandowski, Heather Zaniewski, Benjamin Schuman, Carolyn Wu, Alyssa Lutservitz, Christopher D. Mullally, Nora Reed, Elizabeth Bien, Laura Bortolin, Marian Fernandez-Otero, Jessica D. Lin, Alec Wysoker, James Nemesh, David Kulp, Monika Burns, Victor Tkachev, Richard Smith, Christopher A. Walsh, Jordane Dimidschstein, Bernardo Rudy, Leslie S. Kean, Sabina Berretta, Gord Fishell, Guoping Feng, Steven A. McCarroll
Issue&Volume: 2020-09-30
Abstract: Primates and rodents, which descended from a common ancestor around 90 million years ago1, exhibit profound differences in behaviour and cognitive capacity; the cellular basis for these differences is unknown. Here we use single-nucleus RNA sequencing to profile RNA expression in 188,776 individual interneurons across homologous brain regions from three primates (human, macaque and marmoset), a rodent (mouse) and a weasel (ferret). Homologous interneuron types—which were readily identified by their RNA-expression patterns—varied in abundance and RNA expression among ferrets, mice and primates, but varied less among primates. Only a modest fraction of the genes identified as ‘markers’ of specific interneuron subtypes in any one species had this property in another species. In the primate neocortex, dozens of genes showed spatial expression gradients among interneurons of the same type, which suggests that regional variation in cortical contexts shapes the RNA expression patterns of adult neocortical interneurons. We found that an interneuron type that was previously associated with the mouse hippocampus—the ‘ivy cell’, which has neurogliaform characteristics—has become abundant across the neocortex of humans, macaques and marmosets but not mice or ferrets. We also found a notable subcortical innovation: an abundant striatal interneuron type in primates that had no molecularly homologous counterpart in mice or ferrets. These interneurons expressed a unique combination of genes that encode transcription factors, receptors and neuropeptides and constituted around 30% of striatal interneurons in marmosets and humans.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2781-z
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2781-z
Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html
本期文章：《自然》：Online/在线发表
