summary: New study introduces BARseq, a rapid and cost-effective method to map brain cells, revealing new insights into how our brains are structured at the cellular level became. Researchers used BARseq to classify millions of neurons across multiple mouse brains, discovering unique “cellular signatures” that define each brain region.
The study also highlighted how sensory deprivation, such as blindness, can significantly reorganize these neural structures, highlighting the importance of sensory experience in shaping the brain. This new tool not only advances our understanding of brain structure, but also opens up the possibility of investigating brain changes associated with disease.
Important facts:
- BARseq technology enables rapid and extensive mapping of neurons throughout the brain, identifying distinct cellular features unique to each brain region.
- Sensory experience, especially vision, plays an important role in maintaining and shaping distinct cellular identities in different brain regions.
- The BARseq method is more affordable and faster than previous brain mapping techniques, making it widely accessible for researchers to conduct advanced brain studies.
sauce: allen institute
Scientists have long known that our brain is organized into specialized regions, each responsible for different tasks. For example, the visual cortex processes what you see, and the motor cortex controls movement.But how The formation of these regions and how their neural components differ remains a mystery.
In a study published today, Nature Shedding new light on the cellular landscape of the brain. Researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science used an advanced technique called BARseq to rapidly classify and map millions of neurons across nine mouse brains.
They discovered that each region of the brain shares the same types of neurons, but specific combinations of these cells give each region a different “signature”, similar to a mobile phone ID card. Did.
The research team further investigated how sensory input influences the characteristics of these cells. They found that mice deprived of vision experienced a significant reorganization of cell types within the visual cortex, which blurred the distinction between adjacent areas.
These changes were not limited to visual areas and, to a lesser extent, occurred across half of the cortical areas.
This study highlights the pivotal role of sensory experience in the formation and maintenance of each brain region’s unique cellular identity.
“BARseq now allows us to see with unprecedented precision how sensory input influences brain development,” said co-lead author of the study and research assistant at the Allen Institute. said Dr. Xiaoying Chen.
“These widespread changes demonstrate how important vision is in shaping our brains, even at the most basic level.”
Powerful new brain mapping tool
Co-lead author and scientist Mara Lu, Ph.D., from the Allen Institute, said that until now it has been difficult to collect single-cell data across multiple brains. However, she said BARseq is cheaper and less time-consuming than similar mapping techniques and allows researchers to examine and compare the molecular structure of the entire brain across multiple individuals.
BARseq tags individual brain cells with a unique RNA ‘barcode’ to track cell connections throughout the brain. Combining this data with gene expression analysis allows scientists to precisely locate and identify vast numbers of neurons within tissue sections.
In this study, the researchers used BARseq as a standalone method to rapidly analyze gene expression in intact tissue samples. In just three weeks, researchers mapped more than 9 million cells from his eight brains.
The scale and speed of BARseq will provide scientists with powerful new tools to probe deeper into the complexity of the brain, Chen said.
“BARseq allows us to not only map what a ‘model’ or ‘standard’ brain looks like, but also to use it as a tool to understand how the brain changes and changes.” ” said Chen. “This throughput allows us to ask these questions in a very systematic way, which is unthinkable with other technologies.”
Chen and Rue emphasized that the BARseq method is freely available. They hope this study will encourage other researchers to use it to investigate the brain’s organizational principles or expand on cell types associated with disease. .
“This isn’t something only big labs can do,” Lu says. “Our study is a proof of principle that BARseq allows a wide range of people in the field to use spatial transcriptomics to answer their own questions.”
About this brain mapping and neurotechnology research news
author: peter kim
sauce: allen institute
contact: Peter Kim – Allen Institute
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Open access.
“Whole-cortex in situ sequencing reveals identity of input-dependent regions” written by Xiaoyin Chen et al. Nature
abstract
Whole-cortex in situ sequencing reveals identity of input-dependent regions
The cerebral cortex is composed of different types of neurons with diverse gene expression, organized into specialized cortical areas. These regions each have characteristic cellular architecture, connectivity, and neuronal activity and are connected in a modular network.
However, it remains unclear whether these spatial organizations are reflected in neuronal transcriptomic signatures and how such signatures are established during development.
Here we used BARseq, a high-throughput in situ sequencing technology, to cellularly determine the expression of 104 cell type marker genes in 10.3 million cells, including 4,194,658 cortical neurons across nine mouse forebrain hemispheres. I checked the resolution. De novo clustering of gene expression in single neurons revealed transcriptome types consistent with previous single-cell RNA-seq studies. Transcriptome type composition is highly predictive of cortical area identity.
Furthermore, regions with a similar composition of transcriptome types, defined as cortical modules, overlap with highly related regions, suggesting that the same modular composition is reflected in both transcriptome signatures and connectivity. It is suggested that there are.
To examine how the transcriptome profile of cortical neurons depends on development, we evaluated the distribution of cell types after binocular enucleation in newborns.
Remarkably, binocular nucleus removal shifts the cell type composition profile of the visual cortex towards adjacent cortical areas within the same module, suggesting that peripheral inputs result in distinct transcriptomes of areas within cortical modules. This suggests a clearer identity.
Our study, made possible by the high throughput, low cost, and reproducibility of BARseq, provides a proof of principle for using large-scale in situ sequencing to reveal the molecular structure of the entire brain and understand its development. We provide.
