Project description:The retinoic acid orphan receptor alpha (RORα) is well known for its role in cerebellar development and maturation as revealed in the stagerrer (Stg) mutant mouse line. However it’s potential involvement for the development of other brain regions has not been assessed. Here we describe a new role of RORα in the development of the thalamic and cortical circuits that leads to the assembly of columnar barrel structures in the primary somatosensory cortex. Microarray analyses comparing gene expression in the thalamus and cortex of the Stg, showed a down-regulation of genes that have been involved in the control of TCA or cellular maturation of layer IV neurons. Overall, our study outlines a new role of RORα for the coordinated maturation of the thalamus and cortex during early postnatal life, and shows that it is required to initiate the transcription of genes involved in barrel formation.
Project description:Experience-dependent plasticity (EDP) is essential for anatomical and functional maturation of sensory circuits during development and can be readily studied is the rodent barrel cortex. Using this model we aimed to uncover changes on the transcriptome level and applied RNA sequencing upon altered sensory experience in juvenile mice in a cortical column and layer specific manner. From column- and layer-specific barrel cortical tissue, high quality RNA was purified and sequenced. The current dataset entails an average of 50 million paired-end reads per sample, 75 base pairs in length.
Project description:VIP/ChAT colinergic interneurons were isolated from mouse cortices with the NuNeX Method described in the manuscript. Cortical neuronal networks control cognitive output, but their composition and modulation remain elusive. Here, we studied the morphological and transcriptional diversity of cortical cholinergic VIP/ChAT interneurons (VChIs), a sparse population with a largely unknown function. We focused on VChIs from the whole barrel cortex and developed a high-throughput automated reconstruction framework, termed PopRec, to characterize hundreds of VChIs from each mouse in an unbiased manner, while preserving 3D cortical coordinates in multiple cleared mouse brains, accumulating thousands of cells. We identified two fundamentally distinct morphological types of VChIs, bipolar and multipolar that differ in their cortical distribution and general morphological features. Following mild unilateral whisker deprivation on postnatal day seven, we found after three weeks both ipsi- and contralateral dendritic arborization differences and modified cortical depth and distribution patterns in the barrel fields alone. To seek the transcriptomic drivers, we developed NuNeX, a method for isolating nuclei from fixed tissues, to explore sorted VChIs. This highlighted differentially expressed neuronal structural transcripts, altered exitatory innervation pathways and established Elmo1 as a key regulator of morphology following deprivation.
Project description:Mice lacking the growth associated protein, GAP-43, (KO) show multiple deficits in forebrain axon guidance and cortical cell differentiation (Donovan and McCasland, 2005). As a result, GAP-43 KO mice fail to form barrels in mouse somatosensory cortex (S1) (Maier et al., 1999). GAP-43 heterozygous (HZ) mice show abnormalities in axonal pathfinding and show larger than normal barrels in layer IV S1 due to widely branched thalamocortical afferents (TCAs). Regardless of abnormalities during early development, HZ barrels become indistinguishable from WT by postnatal day 26. One explanation for these findings is that compensatory mechanisms may be activated in GAP-43 HZ cortex. We have used mRNA microarray expression analysis to gain a more comprehensive view of genes involved in GAP-43 signaling during barrel map formation. Using laser microdissection , cortical cells of the barrel cortex were excised, RNA extracted and used in GeneChip analysis. Expression profiling and functional gene group analysis of RNA from WT, HZ, and KO cortex at postnatal day 5 was performed. We identified thousands of transcripts differentially expressed across the genotypes. Verification of selected changes in gene expression was accomplished using in situ hybridization. Our results suggest an adaptive modification in transcript expression of genes involved in cell-cell communication and synaptogenesis. These modifications appear important in forward and reverse signaling as well as maintaining synchrony between the cells. Compensatory up- and down regulation of synapse-associated genes may explain the reverse in HZ phenotype from P7 to P26. Moreover, these findings provide new insight into the role GAP-43 plays in several pathways associated with synaptogenesis and trans-synaptic signaling. Experiment Overall Design: 3 replicate RNA samples were prepared from laser microdissected barrel cortex samples of WT, HZ and KO mice at a single timepoint (postnatal day 5)
Project description:The formation of the cerebral cortex requires balanced expansion and differentiation of neural progenitor cells, the fate choice of which requires regulation at many steps of gene expression. As progenitor cells often exhibit transcriptomic stochasticity, the ultimate output of cell fate-determining genes must be carefully controlled at the post-transcriptional level, but how this is orchestrated is poorly understood. Here, we report that de novo variants in an RNA-binding protein CELF2 cause human cortical malformations and perturb neural progenitor cell fate decisions in mice by disrupting the nucleocytoplasmic transport of CELF2. In self-renewing neural progenitors, CELF2 is localized in the cytoplasm where it binds and coordinates mRNAs that encode cell fate regulators and neurodevelopmental disorder-related factors. The translocation of CELF2 into the nucleus releases mRNAs for translation and thereby triggers neural progenitor differentiation. Our results reveal a mechanism by which transport of CELF2 between discrete subcellular compartments orchestrates an RNA regulon to instruct cell fates in cerebral cortical development.
Project description:Single-cell RNA-sequencing of cortical GABAergic interneurons to characterize their transcriptional profiles at several timepoints across development - from their origins in the ganglionic eminences, upon migration to the cortex, settling in cortical laminae, and through maturation.
Project description:Neuroserpin is a serine protease inhibitor that regulates the activity of tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) in the nervous system. Neuroserpin is strongly expressed during nervous system development as well as during adulthood, when it is predominantly found in regions eliciting synaptic plasticity. In the hippocampus, neuroserpin regulates developmental neurogenesis, synaptic maturation and in adult mice it modulates synaptic plasticity and controls cognitive and social behavior. High expression levels of neuroserpin in the cerebral cortex starting from prenatal stage and persisting during adulthood suggest an important role for the serpin in the formation of this brain region and in the maintenance of cortical functions. In order to uncover neuroserpin function in the cerebral cortex, in this work we performed a comprehensive investigation of its expression pattern during development and in the adulthood. Moreover, we assessed the role of neuroserpin in cortex formation by comparing cortical lamination and neuronal maturation between neuroserpin-deficient and control mice. Finally, we evaluated a possible regulatory role of neuroserpin at cortical synapses in neuroserpin-deficient mice. We observed that neuroserpin is expressed starting from the beginning of corticogenesis until adulthood throughout the cortex in both glutamatergic projection neurons and GABA-ergic interneurons. However, in the absence of neuroserpin we did not detect any alteration in cortical layer formation, in soma size, in dendritic length, and the ultrastructure. Furthermore no significant quantitative changes could be observed in the proteome of cortical synapses could be observed upon Neuroserpin deficiency. We conclude that, although strongly expressed in the cerebral cortex, absence of neuroserpin does not lead to developmental abnormalities, and does not perturb composition of the cortical synaptic proteome.
Project description:Single-cell ATAC-sequencing of cortical GABAergic interneurons to characterize the chromatin landscapes of these cells at several timepoints across development - from their origins in the ganglionic eminences, upon migration to the cortex, settling in cortical laminae, and through maturation.
Project description:Neuronal development in the human cerebral cortex is considerably prolonged compared to that of other mammals. We explored whether mitochondria influence the species-specific timing of cortical neuron maturation. By comparing human and mouse cortical neuronal maturation at high temporal and cell resolution, we found a slower mitochondria development in human cortical neurons compared with that in the mouse, together with lower mitochondria metabolic activity, particularly that of oxidative phosphorylation. Stimulation of mitochondria metabolism in human neurons resulted in accelerated development in vitro and in vivo, leading to maturation of cells weeks ahead of time, whereas its inhibition in mouse neurons led to decreased rates of maturation. Mitochondria are thus important regulators of the pace of neuronal development underlying human-specific brain neoteny.
Project description:Corticospinal motor neurons (CSMN) are one specialized class of cortical excitatory neurons, which connect layer Vb of the cortex to the spinal cord. a master transcription factor –Forebrain expressed zinc finger 2 (Fezf2) – has been identified that is necessary for the fate specification of CSMN. Fezf2 alone can cell-autonomously instruct the acquisition of CSMN-specific features when expressed in diverse, permissive cellular contexts, in vivo. In order to understand the molecular logic underlying the acquisition of CSMN traits upon Fezf2 expression, we compared the in vivo gene expression of FACS-purified cortical progenitors that ectopically expressed Fezf2 to control progenitors. We used in utero electroporation to deliver Fezf2GFP or CtrlGFP expression vectors to neocortical progenitors at E14.5, when they primarily generate CPN of the upper layers. Overexpression of Fezf2 in these progenitors is sufficient to instruct a fate-switch resulting in the generation of CSMN and other subtypes of corticofugal projection neurons. Fezf2GFP- and CtrlGFP -electroporated progenitors were FACS-purified at 24 and 48 hours after surgery and acutely profiled by microarrays.