New Technique Reveals Secrets of Brain Evolution – Technology Networks

As humans, we have a large and intricately folded neocortex that accounts for many of our intellectual abilities and sets us apart from all other species. A research team headed by Dr. Tran Tuoc from the Department of Human Genetics at the Faculty of Medicine at Ruhr-Universitt Bochum (RUB) has identified an important factor that could have led to this brain development in the course of evolution: the so-called H3 acetylation of basal neural precursor cells. This finding could also pave the way for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. The paper was published in the journal Science Advances on 15. September 2021.

In order to test whether cortical expansion in evolution is linked to a change in the epigenetic landscape, the authors started by investigating whether epigenetic marks differ between TBR2-positive (+) BPs from mouse and human cortices. They performed intranuclear immunofluorescence staining with TBR2 antibodies and with single cell suspensions isolated from developing mouse and human cortices, followed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to purify TBR2+ BPs.

The team used a new mass spectrometry-based technique to detect differences in the epigenetic landscape between the developing mouse and human brain. Our studies showed that what is known as histone H3 lysine 9 acetylation, or H3K9ac, is low in mouse basal progenitor cells but high in human cells, points out Tran Tuoc. When the researchers increased the acetylation of mouse neurons in the experiment, this stimulated their proliferation, which led to growth and folding of the typically smooth mouse cortex. The pathway is via increased expression of the TRNP1 gene.

These results suggest that manipulating H3 acetylation in basal progenitor cells could help generate more neurons, which in turn could be used to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

Reference:Kerimoglu C, Pham L, Tonchev AB, et al. H3 acetylation selectively promotes basal progenitor proliferation and neocortex expansion. Sci Adv. 7(38):eabc6792. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abc6792

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New Technique Reveals Secrets of Brain Evolution - Technology Networks