Whole-brain comparison of rodent and human brains using spatial transcriptomics

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Comparative Genomics
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Translating findings from mouse models to human brains requires improved cross-species comparison methods.
• Previous work established quantitative comparison of primate brains using white matter tractography.
• Openly accessible transcriptomic data offers a new avenue for mouse-human brain comparisons.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the similarity of mouse and human brain regions using transcriptomic data.
• To improve the resolution of cross-species correspondences beyond homologous genes.
• To identify conserved and divergent brain regions between mice and humans.

Main Methods:

• Utilized openly accessible, brain-wide transcriptomic data sets from mouse and human brains.
• Employed mouse-human homologous genes to capture broad neuroanatomical organization patterns.
• Developed and applied a novel supervised machine learning approach to enhance cross-species mapping.

Main Results:

• Homologous genes revealed general patterns, but machine learning improved correspondence resolution.
• Sensorimotor cortical subdivisions showed higher similarity between mouse and human brains than supramodal subdivisions.
• Mouse and human striatal regions demonstrated strong conservation, with the caudoputamen showing equal similarity to human caudate and putamen.

Conclusions:

• A supervised machine learning approach refines cross-species brain region comparisons using transcriptomic data.
• Sensorimotor cortical areas are more conserved between mouse and human brains than supramodal areas.
• Striatal regions, including the caudoputamen, exhibit significant conservation across species.