Molecular diversity and evolution of neuron types in the amniote brain
Hain and colleagues built a cell-type atlas of the bearded dragon brain and compared it with mouse datasets to study how neuron types evolve. Neuron classes shared by the two species could be identified from the expression of hundreds of genes. Within those classes, some neuron types are conserved and others diverge, so they cannot simply be sorted into ancestral and novel groups. In the thalamus, neuronal diversification parallels that in the cortex, which suggests that developmental origin and circuit allocation drive the evolution of neuron identity.
Hain and colleagues built a cell-type atlas of the bearded dragon brain and compared it with mouse datasets to study how neuron types evolve. Neuron classes shared by the two species could be identified from the expression of hundreds of genes. Within those classes, some neuron types are conserved and others diverge, so they cannot simply be sorted into ancestral and novel groups. In the thalamus, neuronal diversification parallels that in the cortex, which suggests that developmental origin and circuit allocation drive the evolution of neuron identity.
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-26 via OpenAlex.
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doi:10.1126/science.abp8202. Read at the level of the abstract.