Comparative transcriptomics reveals human-specific cortical features

Nikolas L. Jorstad, Janet H. T. Song, David Exposito-Alonso, Hamsini Suresh, Nathan Castro-Pacheco, Fenna M. Krienen, Anna Marie Yanny, Jennie Close, Emily Gelfand, Brian Long, Stephanie C. Seeman, Kyle J. Travaglini, Soumyadeep Basu, Marc Beaudin, Darren Bertagnolli, Megan Crow, Song-Lin Ding, Jeroen Eggermont, Alexandra Glandon, Jeff Goldy, Katelyn Kiick, Thomas Kroes, Delissa McMillen, Trangthanh Pham, Christine Rimorin, Kimberly Siletti, Saroja Somasundaram, Michael Tieu, Amy Torkelson, Guoping Feng, William D. Hopkins, Thomas Höllt, C. Dirk Keene, Sten Linnarsson, Steven A. McCarroll, Boudewijn P. Lelieveldt, Chet C. Sherwood, Kimberly Smith, Christopher A. Walsh, Alexander Dobin, Jesse Gillis, Ed S. Lein, Rebecca D. Hodge, Trygve E. Bakken

Abstract

The cognitive abilities of humans are distinctive among primates, but their molecular and cellular substrates are poorly understood. We used comparative single-nucleus transcriptomics to analyze samples of the middle temporal gyrus (MTG) from adult humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, rhesus macaques, and common marmosets to understand human-specific features of the neocortex. Human, chimpanzee, and gorilla MTG showed highly similar cell-type composition and laminar organization as well as a large shift in proportions of deep-layer intratelencephalic-projecting neurons compared with macaque and marmoset MTG. Microglia, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes had more-divergent expression across species compared with neurons or oligodendrocyte precursor cells, and neuronal expression diverged more rapidly on the human lineage. Only a few hundred genes showed human-specific patterning, suggesting that relatively few cellular and molecular changes distinctively define adult human cortical structure.

Datasets

1. Human: Great apes study
Metadata
Neighborhood
Subclass
CrossSpeciesCluster
assay_ontology_term_id
cell_type_ontology_term_id
development_stage_ontology_term_id
disease_ontology_term_id
self_reported_ethnicity_ontology_term_id
organism_ontology_term_id
sex_ontology_term_id
suspension_type
tissue_ontology_term_id
donor_id
tissue_type
cell_type
assay
disease
organism
sex
tissue
self_reported_ethnicity
development_stage
it_types85276 cells
sst_sst_chodl_pvalb26099 cells
lamp5_sncg_vip19504 cells
glia15022 cells
l5et_l56np_l6ct_l6b10384 cells
Preview
Comparative transcriptomics reveals human-specific cortical features

Analyze this study

Dataset 1
Download OmnibusX

Source data

https://cellxgene.cziscience.com/collections/4dca242c-d302-4dba-a68f-4c61e7bad553

Alias names

PMID37824638, PMC10659116

Cite this study

Jorstad, N.L., Song, J.H., Exposito-Alonso, D., Suresh, H., Castro-Pacheco, N., Krienen, F.M., Yanny, A.M., Close, J., Gelfand, E., Long, B. and Seeman, S.C., 2023. Comparative transcriptomics reveals human-specific cortical features. Science, 382(6667), p.eade9516. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade9516