Brain-wide and cell-specific transcriptomic insights into MRI-derived cortical morphology in macaque monkeys

Nat Commun. 2023 Mar 17;14(1):1499. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-37246-w.

Abstract

Integrative analyses of transcriptomic and neuroimaging data have generated a wealth of information about biological pathways underlying regional variability in imaging-derived brain phenotypes in humans, but rarely in nonhuman primates due to the lack of a comprehensive anatomically-defined atlas of brain transcriptomics. Here we generate complementary bulk RNA-sequencing dataset of 819 samples from 110 brain regions and single-nucleus RNA-sequencing dataset, and neuroimaging data from 162 cynomolgus macaques, to examine the link between brain-wide gene expression and regional variation in morphometry. We not only observe global/regional expression profiles of macaque brain comparable to human but unravel a dorsolateral-ventromedial gradient of gene assemblies within the primate frontal lobe. Furthermore, we identify a set of 971 protein-coding and 34 non-coding genes consistently associated with cortical thickness, specially enriched for neurons and oligodendrocytes. These data provide a unique resource to investigate nonhuman primate models of human diseases and probe cross-species evolutionary mechanisms.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain* / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Macaca fascicularis / genetics
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Primates / genetics
  • RNA / metabolism
  • Transcriptome*

Substances

  • RNA