2019-4-26 by Quick Biology Inc.
In adult neurogenesis, there is very little knowledge about the embryonic origin and developmental process that leads to the establishment of adult neural progenitors in the mammalian brain. Scientists once thought that adult neurogenesis is from a specialized population of neural stem cells and they are different from the precursors generating neurons during embryo development. But a group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia found that a single lineage of neural progenitors contributes to embryonic, early postnatal, and adult neurogenesis in the mice hippocampus.
In the current study, the researchers labeled precursor neural stem cells in mice at a very early stage of brain development. They then followed the lineage of cells throughout development and into adulthood. Their findings revealed that new neural stem cells with the precursor cells’ label were continuously generated throughout the animals’ lifetimes.
RNA-seq (Figure 1) and ATAC-seq (Figure 2) analyses were used to confirm that all the cells in the lineage had a common molecular signature and the same developmental dynamics and reveal common molecular and epigenetic signatures and developmental dynamics in Hopx+ embryonic, early postnatal, and adult dentate neural progenitors.
Figure 1. RNA-seq of Transcriptome Analyses Reveal Developmental Transitions of Dentate Hopx+ Neural Progenitors during embryonic (E), early postnatal (P), and adult (A) stages. For example, Heatmap illustrating gradual changes gene expression in dentate neural progenitors across development sorted by GO terms. GO analysis of biological processes for differentially expressed genes in dentate progenitors at different stages. A Wikipathways gene set enrichment analysis for upregulated lipid metabolism genes in dentate progenitors during development [Source].
Figure 2. ATAC-seq Analysis shows Dentate Hopx+ Neural Progenitors Maintain a Stable Landscape of Chromatin Accessibility across Development. For example, Venn diagram (B) illustrating the overlap of ATAC-seq peaks in dentate progenitors at different stages. GO analysis (D) of genes associated with progenitor-enriched ATAC-seq peaks in the promoter-TSS, exon, intron, and TTS regions. Motif discovery analysis of ATAC-seq peaks shown known transcription factor binding sites in the samples.
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Source: Berg DA et al. (2019) A Common Embryonic Origin of Stem Cells for Continuous Developmental and Adult Neurogenesis. Cell [Epub ahead of print]. [article]