title: Evolution of neuronal and endothelial transcriptomes in primates.
abstract: The study of gene expression evolution in vertebrates has hitherto focused on the analysis of transcriptomes in tissues of different species. However, because a tissue is made up of different cell types, and cell types differ with respect to their transcriptomes, the analysis of tissues offers a composite picture of transcriptome evolution. The isolation of individual cells from tissue sections opens up the opportunity to study gene expression evolution at the cell type level. We have stained neurons and endothelial cells in human brains by antibodies against cell type-specific marker proteins, isolated the cells using laser capture microdissection, and identified genes preferentially expressed in the two cell types. We analyze these two classes of genes with respect to their expression in 62 different human tissues, with respect to their expression in 44 human "postmortem" brains from different developmental stages and with respect to between-species brain expression differences. We find that genes preferentially expressed in neurons differ less across tissues and developmental stages than genes preferentially expressed in endothelial cells. We also observe less expression differences within primate species for neuronal transcriptomes. In stark contrast, we see more gene expression differences between humans, chimpanzees, and rhesus macaques relative to within-species differences in genes expressed preferentially in neurons than in genes expressed in endothelial cells. This suggests that neuronal and endothelial transcriptomes evolve at different rates within brain tissue.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Giger
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Khaitovich
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Somel
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lorenc
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lizano
authors.forename: Laura W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: Margaret M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.forename: Matthew T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Wayland
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bahn
authors.forename: Svante
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pääbo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000235:genetics; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000235:genetics; D011323:Primates / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity; D014018:Tissue Distribution