Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons02:54

Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons

6.2K
Genome comparison is one of the excellent ways to interpret the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The basic principle of genome comparison is that if two species share a common feature, it is likely encoded by the DNA sequence conserved between both species. The advent of genome sequencing technologies in the late 20th century enabled scientists to understand the concept of conservation of domains between species and helped them to deduce evolutionary relationships across diverse...
6.2K
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?02:05

Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?

7.5K
The genomes of eukaryotes are punctuated by long stretches of sequence which do not code for proteins or RNAs. Although some of these regions do contain crucial regulatory sequences, the vast majority of this DNA serves no known function. Typically, these regions of the genome are the ones in which the fastest change, in evolutionary terms, is observed, because there is typically little to no selection pressure acting on these regions to preserve their sequences.
In contrast, regions which code...
7.5K
Genomics02:02

Genomics

37.5K
Genomics is the science of genomes: it is the study of all the genetic material of an organism. In humans, the genome consists of information carried in 23 pairs of chromosomes in the nucleus, as well as mitochondrial DNA. In genomics, both coding and non-coding DNA is sequenced and analyzed. Genomics allows a better understanding of all living things, their evolution, and their diversity. It has a myriad of uses: for example, to build phylogenetic trees, to improve productivity and...
37.5K
Next-generation Sequencing03:00

Next-generation Sequencing

92.7K
The first human genome sequencing project cost $2.7 billion and was declared complete in 2003, after 15 years of international cooperation and collaboration between several research teams and funding agencies. Today, with the advent of next-generation sequencing technologies, the cost and time of sequencing a human genome have dropped over 100 fold.
Next-Generation Sequencing Methods
Although all next-generation methods use different technologies, they all share a set of standard features....
92.7K
Synteny and Evolution02:31

Synteny and Evolution

3.4K
John H. Renwick first coined the term “synteny” in 1971, which refers to the genes present on the same chromosomes, even if they are not genetically linked. The species with common ancestry tend to show conserved syntenic regions. Therefore, the concept of synteny is nowadays used to describe the evolutionary relationship between species.
Around 80 million years ago, the human and mice lineages diverged from the common ancestor. During the course of evolution, the ancestral...
3.4K
Multi-species Conserved Sequences02:51

Multi-species Conserved Sequences

4.3K
Next-generation sequencing technologies have created large genomic databases of a variety of animals and plants. Ever since the human genome project was completed, scientists studied the genome of primates, mammals, and other phylogenetically distant living beings. Such large-scale  studies have provided new insights into the evolutionary relationship between organisms.
Although the genome of each species varies greatly from each other, a few sequences are highly conserved. Such conserved...
4.3K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

The genetic signature of memory encoding along the human hippocampal axis.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

Comparative analysis of the cellular landscape in mammalian striatum.

Nature communications·2026
Same author

Stimulation modulates cell assemblies linked with gene networks in the human temporal cortex <i>ex vivo</i>.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025
Same author

Human CLOCK enhances neocortical function.

Nature neuroscience·2025
Same author

Spatial transcriptomics reveals human cortical layer and area specification.

Nature·2025
Same author

Sleep need driven oscillation of glutamate synaptic phenotype.

eLife·2025

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 17, 2025

Neuronal Nuclei Isolation from Human Postmortem Brain Tissue
10:58

Neuronal Nuclei Isolation from Human Postmortem Brain Tissue

Published on: October 1, 2008

22.3K

Decoding DNA sequence-driven evolution of the human brain epigenome at cellular resolution.

Emre Caglayan1,2,3, Genevieve Konopka4,5

  • 1Department of Neuroscience, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA. emre.caglayan@utsouthwestern.edu.

Nature Communications
|July 2, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study reveals evolutionary changes in the human brain epigenome using single-cell ATAC-seq. Fetal microglia show divergence, while conserved elements link to brain diseases.

More Related Videos

DamID-seq: Genome-wide Mapping of Protein-DNA Interactions by High Throughput Sequencing of Adenine-methylated DNA Fragments
09:14

DamID-seq: Genome-wide Mapping of Protein-DNA Interactions by High Throughput Sequencing of Adenine-methylated DNA Fragments

Published on: January 27, 2016

19.6K
Pattern-based Search of Epigenomic Data Using GeNemo
06:38

Pattern-based Search of Epigenomic Data Using GeNemo

Published on: October 8, 2017

5.2K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Sep 17, 2025

Neuronal Nuclei Isolation from Human Postmortem Brain Tissue
10:58

Neuronal Nuclei Isolation from Human Postmortem Brain Tissue

Published on: October 1, 2008

22.3K
DamID-seq: Genome-wide Mapping of Protein-DNA Interactions by High Throughput Sequencing of Adenine-methylated DNA Fragments
09:14

DamID-seq: Genome-wide Mapping of Protein-DNA Interactions by High Throughput Sequencing of Adenine-methylated DNA Fragments

Published on: January 27, 2016

19.6K
Pattern-based Search of Epigenomic Data Using GeNemo
06:38

Pattern-based Search of Epigenomic Data Using GeNemo

Published on: October 8, 2017

5.2K

Area of Science:

  • Genomics
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Comparative genomics of regulatory elements offers insights into functional changes.
  • Single-cell ATAC-seq overcomes tissue accessibility challenges for evolutionary studies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To uncover DNA substitutions in human and ancestral lineages using single-cell ATAC-seq data.
  • To identify lineage-divergent gene regulatory elements and associated biological pathways.
  • To explore transcription factor binding site evolution in the human and ape lineages.

Main Methods:

  • Harnessed adult and fetal cortex single-cell ATAC-seq datasets.
  • Employed multiomic datasets for gene and pathway association.
  • Analyzed DNA substitutions and transcription factor binding site evolution across lineages.

Main Results:

  • Fetal microglia identity is evolutionarily divergent across lineages; other cell types are conserved.
  • Identified genes linked to lineage-divergent regulatory elements and implicated biological pathways.
  • Observed expansion of specific transcription factor targets in human-hominin and ape lineages.
  • Conserved genomic features are enriched in brain disease variants.

Conclusions:

  • Ancestral evolutionary patterns of the human brain epigenome are identified at cellular resolution.
  • Fetal microglia represent a key area of evolutionary divergence.
  • Conserved brain epigenomic features, rather than lineage-specific ones, are associated with brain disease variants.