A comprehensive transcriptional map of primate brain development.

The transcriptional underpinnings of brain development remain poorly understood, particularly in humans and closely related non-human primates. We describe a high-resolution transcriptional atlas of rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) brain development that combines dense temporal sampling of prenatal and postnatal periods with fine anatomical division of cortical and subcortical regions associated with human neuropsychiatric disease. Gene expression changes more rapidly before birth, both in progenitor cells and maturing neurons. Cortical layers and areas acquire adult-like molecular profiles surprisingly late in postnatal development. Disparate cell populations exhibit distinct developmental timing of gene expression, but also unexpected synchrony of processes underlying neural circuit construction including cell projection and adhesion. Candidate risk genes for neurodevelopmental disorders including primary microcephaly, autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and schizophrenia show disease-specific spatiotemporal enrichment within developing neocortex. Human developmental expression trajectories are more similar to monkey than rodent, although approximately 9% of genes show human-specific regulation with evidence for prolonged maturation or neoteny compared to monkey.

An anatomically comprehensive atlas of the adult human brain transcriptome.

Neuroanatomically precise, genome-wide maps of transcript distributions are critical resources to complement genomic sequence data and to correlate functional and genetic brain architecture. Here we describe the generation and analysis of a transcriptional atlas of the adult human brain, comprising extensive histological analysis and comprehensive microarray profiling of ∼900 neuroanatomically precise subdivisions in two individuals. Transcriptional regulation varies enormously by anatomical location, with different regions and their constituent cell types displaying robust molecular signatures that are highly conserved between individuals. Analysis of differential gene expression and gene co-expression relationships demonstrates that brain-wide variation strongly reflects the distributions of major cell classes such as neurons, oligodendrocytes, astrocytes and microglia. Local neighbourhood relationships between fine anatomical subdivisions are associated with discrete neuronal subtypes and genes involved with synaptic transmission. The neocortex displays a relatively homogeneous transcriptional pattern, but with distinct features associated selectively with primary sensorimotor cortices and with enriched frontal lobe expression. Notably, the spatial topography of the neocortex is strongly reflected in its molecular topography-the closer two cortical regions, the more similar their transcriptomes. This freely accessible online data resource forms a high-resolution transcriptional baseline for neurogenetic studies of normal and abnormal human brain function.

Genome-wide atlas of gene expression in the adult mouse brain.

Molecular approaches to understanding the functional circuitry of the nervous system promise new insights into the relationship between genes, brain and behaviour. The cellular diversity of the brain necessitates a cellular resolution approach towards understanding the functional genomics of the nervous system. We describe here an anatomically comprehensive digital atlas containing the expression patterns of approximately 20,000 genes in the adult mouse brain. Data were generated using automated high-throughput procedures for in situ hybridization and data acquisition, and are publicly accessible online. Newly developed image-based informatics tools allow global genome-scale structural analysis and cross-correlation, as well as identification of regionally enriched genes. Unbiased fine-resolution analysis has identified highly specific cellular markers as well as extensive evidence of cellular heterogeneity not evident in classical neuroanatomical atlases. This highly standardized atlas provides an open, primary data resource for a wide variety of further studies concerning brain organization and function.

Divergent and nonuniform gene expression patterns in mouse brain.

Considerable progress has been made in understanding variations in gene sequence and expression level associated with phenotype, yet how genetic diversity translates into complex phenotypic differences remains poorly understood. Here, we examine the relationship between genetic background and spatial patterns of gene expression across seven strains of mice, providing the most extensive cellular-resolution comparative analysis of gene expression in the mammalian brain to date. Using comprehensive brainwide anatomic coverage (more than 200 brain regions), we applied in situ hybridization to analyze the spatial expression patterns of 49 genes encoding well-known pharmaceutical drug targets. Remarkably, over 50% of the genes examined showed interstrain expression variation. In addition, the variability was nonuniformly distributed across strain and neuroanatomic region, suggesting certain organizing principles. First, the degree of expression variance among strains mirrors genealogic relationships. Second, expression pattern differences were concentrated in higher-order brain regions such as the cortex and hippocampus. Divergence in gene expression patterns across the brain could contribute significantly to variations in behavior and responses to neuroactive drugs in laboratory mouse strains and may help to explain individual differences in human responsiveness to neuroactive drugs.

An anatomic transcriptional atlas of human glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma is an aggressive brain tumor that carries a poor prognosis. The tumor's molecular and cellular landscapes are complex, and their relationships to histologic features routinely used for diagnosis are unclear. We present the Ivy Glioblastoma Atlas, an anatomically based transcriptional atlas of human glioblastoma that aligns individual histologic features with genomic alterations and gene expression patterns, thus assigning molecular information to the most important morphologic hallmarks of the tumor. The atlas and its clinical and genomic database are freely accessible online data resources that will serve as a valuable platform for future investigations of glioblastoma pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment.

Cell-type-specific consequences of Reelin deficiency in the mouse neocortex, hippocampus, and amygdala.

The disrupted cortical lamination phenotype in reeler mice and subsequent identification of the Reelin signaling pathway have strongly informed models of cortical development. We describe here a marker-based phenotyping approach to reexamine the cytoarchitectural consequences of Reelin deficiency, using high-throughput histology and newly identified panels of highly specific molecular markers. The resulting cell-type-level cytoarchitectural analysis revealed novel features of abnormal patterning in the male reeler mouse not obvious with less specific markers or histology. The reeler cortex has been described as a rough laminar inversion, but the data presented here are not compatible with this model. The reeler cortex is disrupted in a more complex fashion, with some regions showing a mirror-image laminar phenotype. Major rostrocaudal and cell-type-specific differences in the laminar phenotype between cortical areas are detailed. These and similar findings in hippocampus and amygdala have implications for mechanisms of normal brain development and abnormalities in neurodevelopmental disorders.