Nelson Sacha B, Sugino Ken, Hempel Chris M
Department of Biology and National Center for Behavioral Genomics, Brandeis University, MS 008, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA 02454-9110, USA.
Trends Neurosci. 2006 Jun;29(6):339-45. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2006.05.004. Epub 2006 May 22.
Neural circuits within the vertebrate brain are composed of highly diverse cell types. The exact extent of this diversity is a matter of continuing debate. For example, do cortical interneurons comprise a few, dozens or >100 distinct cell types? Recently, several groups have used microarrays to measure genome-wide gene expression profiles for specific neuronal cell types. These methods can offer an objective basis for neuronal classification. In this review, we argue that this approach should now be carried out more broadly and that it should be coupled to large-scale efforts to generate mouse driver lines in which tools for genetic manipulation, such as the Cre recombinase, are expressed in identified cell types within the brain. This would enable neuroscientists to begin to investigate more systematically the roles of specific genes in establishing particular cellular phenotypes, and also the roles of particular cell types within brain circuits. This review is part of the TINS special issue on The Neural Substrates of Cognition.
脊椎动物大脑中的神经回路由高度多样的细胞类型组成。这种多样性的确切程度仍是一个持续争论的话题。例如，皮层中间神经元是由少数几种、几十种还是超过100种不同的细胞类型组成？最近，几个研究小组使用微阵列来测量特定神经元细胞类型的全基因组基因表达谱。这些方法可为神经元分类提供客观依据。在本综述中，我们认为现在应该更广泛地开展这种方法，并且应该与大规模努力相结合，以生成小鼠驱动系，其中诸如Cre重组酶等基因操作工具在大脑中已确定的细胞类型中表达。这将使神经科学家能够更系统地开始研究特定基因在建立特定细胞表型中的作用，以及特定细胞类型在脑回路中的作用。本综述是《神经科学趋势》关于认知的神经基础的特刊的一部分。
