An international research team led by scientists at Heidelberg University has now decoded the genetic programs that control the development of cerebellar cell types before and after birth. Their findings were published in Science.
“Although developmental gene expression in the cerebellum has already been studied relatively well, its genetic control has remained elusive,” explains researcher Mari Sepp. In the current study, the researchers used single-cell sequencing to map the control elements of all active genes over the entire developmental period of the cerebellum in mice.
The team identified more than 200,000 control elements, most of which are highly specific for individual cell types and development stages. However, some of these elements are activated in multiple cell types, especially in the early stages of development.
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Additionally, to understand the evolution of these gene regulatory programs, the researchers compared their results from the mouse with corresponding data from the opossum. According to the team, this comparison revealed a temporal pattern that is shared between different cell types. “The gene regulatory programs of each cell type deviate more between species as development progresses,” concludes researcher Ioannis Sarropoulos.