Gumnit Elias, Gattoni Giacomo, Woych Jamie, Deryckere Astrid, Bhattarai Prabesh, Gillis J Andrew, Kizil Caghan, Tosches Maria Antonietta
Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
Department of Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
bioRxiv. 2025 Aug 22:2025.08.21.671508. doi: 10.1101/2025.08.21.671508.
In the developing cerebral cortex, Cajal Retzius (CR) cells are early-born neurons that orchestrate the development of mammalian-specific cortical features. However, this cell type has not been conclusively identified in non-mammalian species. Here we studied neurons expressing , a transcription factor specifically expressed in most mammalian CR cells. Comparisons of chicken, salamander, zebrafish, and little skate data indicate that -expressing neurons have conserved spatial distribution and transcriptomic signatures in vertebrates. Among the conserved Tp73-expressing cell types we find CR cells and+ external tufted cells (ETCs) in the olfactory bulb of jawed vertebrates. ETCs and CR cells share the expression of most "canonical" CR cell transcription factors, such as , and , indicating that they are sister cell types. Our findings suggest that CR and ETCs evolved in stem vertebrates from cells involved in olfactory processing, with CR cells progressively acquiring new specialized roles in developmental signaling.
在发育中的大脑皮层中，卡哈尔-雷茨乌斯（CR）细胞是早期生成的神经元，它们协调哺乳动物特有的皮层特征的发育。然而，这种细胞类型在非哺乳动物物种中尚未得到最终确认。在这里，我们研究了表达 的神经元， 是一种在大多数哺乳动物CR细胞中特异性表达的转录因子。对鸡、蝾螈、斑马鱼和小鳐鱼数据的比较表明，表达 的神经元在脊椎动物中具有保守的空间分布和转录组特征。在保守的表达Tp73的细胞类型中，我们在有颌脊椎动物的嗅球中发现了CR细胞和+外部簇状细胞（ETC）。ETC和CR细胞共享大多数“典型”CR细胞转录因子的表达谱，如 、 和 ，这表明它们是姐妹细胞类型。我们的研究结果表明，CR细胞和ETC在脊椎动物的祖先中从参与嗅觉处理的细胞进化而来，CR细胞在发育信号传导中逐渐获得了新的专门功能。
