Transcriptional profiling of macaque microglia reveals an evolutionary preserved gene expression program

M L Dubbelaar; C Misrielal; J J Bajramovic; S M Burm; E A Zuiderwijk-Sick; N Brouwer; C Grit; S M Kooistra; S M O Shinjo; S K N Marie; H W G M Boddeke; B J L Eggen

doi:10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100265

Transcriptional profiling of macaque microglia reveals an evolutionary preserved gene expression program

Brain Behav Immun Health. 2021 May 7:15:100265. doi: 10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100265. eCollection 2021 Aug.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems, Section Molecular Neurobiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
² Unit Alternatives, Biomedical Primate Research Center, Rijswijk, the Netherlands.
³ Department of Neurology, Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biology (LIM15), Faculdade de Medicina FMUSP, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
⁴ Center for Healthy Ageing, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 3B, 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Abstract

Microglia are tissue-resident macrophages of the central nervous system (CNS), and important for CNS development and homeostasis. In the adult CNS, microglia monitor environmental changes and react to tissue damage, cellular debris, and pathogens. Here, we present a gene expression profile of purified microglia isolated from the rhesus macaque, a non-human primate, that consists of 666 transcripts. The macaque microglia transcriptome was intersected with the transcriptional programs of microglia from mouse, zebrafish, and human CNS tissues, to determine (dis)similarities. This revealed an extensive overlap of 342 genes between the transcriptional profile of macaque and human microglia, and showed that the gene expression profile of zebrafish is most distant when compared to other species. Furthermore, an evolutionair core based on the overlapping gene expression signature from all four species was identified. This study presents a macaque microglia transcriptomics profile, and identifies a gene expression program in microglia that is preserved across species, underscoring their CNS-tailored tissue macrophage functions as innate immune cells with CNS-surveilling properties.

Keywords: Human; Macaque; Microglia; Mouse; Transcriptomics; Zebrafish.