Project description:In order to gain a global molecular perspective on how the human genome gives rise to the brain, we explore the temporal dynamics and genetic control of transcription in human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in an extensive series of brain tissue from fetal development through aging. We discover a wave of gene expression changes occurring during fetal development which are reversed in early postnatal life. One half century later in life, this phenomenon is mirrored in aging as well as neurodegeneration. While we identify thousands of robust associations of individual genetic polymorphisms with gene expression, we also demonstrate that there is no association between the total extent of genetic differences between subjects and the global similarity of their transcriptional profiles. Hence, the human genome produces a consistent molecular architecture in the prefrontal cortex, despite millions of genetic differences across individuals and races. To enable further discovery, this entire dataset is freely available (GEO). RNA from 269 human prefrontal cortex samples ranging from fetal development (negative ages) through aging (80 years) were analyzed on custom 2-color microarrays from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) microarray core facility using a reference RNA comprised of a pool of all samples. SNP genotype data for these subjects can be found in dbGAP under Study ID *phs000417.v1.p1* http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gap/cgi-bin/study.cgi?study_id=phs000417.v1.p1 Both the gene expression and SNP data from this study can be interrogated gene-by-gene with a biologist-friendly stand-alone application available at http://www.libd.org/braincloud . The original publication of this data appeared in the Oct. 27th 2011 volume of Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v478/n7370/full/nature10524.html .
Project description:In order to gain a global molecular perspective on how the human genome gives rise to the brain, we explore the temporal dynamics and genetic control of transcription in human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in an extensive series of brain tissue from fetal development through aging. We discover a wave of gene expression changes occurring during fetal development which are reversed in early postnatal life. One half century later in life, this phenomenon is mirrored in aging as well as neurodegeneration. While we identify thousands of robust associations of individual genetic polymorphisms with gene expression, we also demonstrate that there is no association between the total extent of genetic differences between subjects and the global similarity of their transcriptional profiles. Hence, the human genome produces a consistent molecular architecture in the prefrontal cortex, despite millions of genetic differences across individuals and races. To enable further discovery, this entire dataset is freely available (GEO). The gene expression from this study can be interrogated gene-by-gene with a biologist-friendly web application available at http://braincloud.jhmi.edu/plots/.
Project description:H3K27ac ChIP-seq were performed on postmortem samples from autism spectrum disorder and matched control brains. Tissues were chosen from three brain regions: prefrontal cortex, temporal cortex and cerebellum.
Project description:<p>This study explores the temporal dynamics and genetic control of transcription and DNA methylation in the human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in postmortem tissue. This study examines 269 subjects for gene expression (version 1) and 108 subjects for DNA methylation (version 2). The subjects are normal controls without neuropathological and neuropsychiatric diagnosis and range in age from fetal weeks 14-20 through old age (>80). We discover fast changes in gene expression occurring during early brain development. Later in life, the changes are considerably slower. Many genes reverse pattern of expression between fetal and early postnatal development. We identify thousands of strong associations of SNPs with gene expression. We examine DNA methylation in ~14,500 genes at ~27,000 CpG loci focused on 5' promoter regions. The fastest changes in DNA methylation also occur during the prenatal period, slow down markedly after birth and continue to slow further with aging. DNA methylation is strongly associated with genotypic variants and correlates with expression of a subset of genes. DNA for genotyping was obtained from the cerebella and applied to either Illumina 650K or 1 million BeadArrays - only genotypes common to both platforms are analyzed here. Genotypes were called using BeadExpress software. Doi: 10.1038/nature10524 <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22031444">Nature</a>, 478:519-524, 2011; doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.12.020, AJHG 90, 1-13, Feb 10, 2012. The methylation data can be downloaded at: <a href="http://BrainCloud.jhmi.edu/downloads.htm">BrainCloud.</a></p>