Differential timing of a conserved transcriptional network underlies divergent cortical projection routes across mammalian brain evolution.

ABSTRACT: A unique combination of transcription factor expression and projection neuron identity demarcates each layer of the cerebral cortex. During mouse and human cortical development, the transcription factor CTIP2 specifies neurons that project subcerebrally, while SATB2 specifies neuronal projections via the corpus callosum, a large axon tract connecting the two neocortical hemispheres that emerged exclusively in eutherian mammals. Marsupials comprise the sister taxon of eutherians but do not have a corpus callosum; their intercortical commissural neurons instead project via the anterior commissure, similar to egg-laying monotreme mammals. It remains unknown whether divergent transcriptional networks underlie these cortical wiring differences. Here, we combine birth-dating analysis, retrograde

SUBMITTER: Paolino A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7229759 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature