Divergence of human and mouse brain transcriptome highlights Alzheimer disease pathways

Jeremy A. Miller, Steve Horvath, Daniel H. Geschwind

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

370 Scopus citations

Abstract

Because mouse models play a crucial role in biomedical research related to the human nervous system, understanding the similarities and differences between mouse and human brain is of fundamental importance. Studies comparing transcription in human and mouse have come to varied conclusions, in part because of their relatively small sample sizes or underpowered methodologies. To better characterize gene expression differences between mouse and human,wetook a systems-biology approach by using weighted gene coexpression network analysis on more than 1,000 microarrays from brain. We find that global network properties of the brain transcriptome are highly preserved between species. Furthermore, all modules of highly coexpressed genes identified in mouse were identified in human, with those related to conserved cellular functions showing the strongest between-species preservation. Modules corresponding to glial and neuronal cells were sufficiently preserved between mouse and human to permit identification of cross species cell-class marker genes. We also identify several robust human-specific modules, including one strongly correlated with measures of Alzheimer disease progression acrossmultiple data sets, whose hubs are poorly-characterized genes likely involved in Alzheimer disease. We present multiple lines of evidence suggesting links between neurodegenerative disease and glial cell types in human, including human-specific correlation of presenilin-1 with oligodendrocyte markers, and significant enrichment for known neurodegenerative disease genes in microglial modules. Together, this work identifies convergent and divergent pathways in mouse and human, and provides a systematic framework that will be useful for understanding the applicability of mouse models for human brain disorders.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)12698-12703
Number of pages6
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume107
Issue number28
DOIs
StatePublished - 13 Jul 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Evolution
  • Gene expression
  • Metaanalysis
  • Neurodegenerative disease
  • Systems biology

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