Cross-species Consensus Atlas of the Basal Ganglia

"The basal ganglia (BG) are evolutionarily conserved subcortical brain structures that are essential for motor control, learning, emotion, and cognition, and are implicated in neurological and psychiatric disorders. Yet, a unified molecular taxonomy of BG cell types across species is lacking. Here, we present a multi-omic consensus atlas comprising over two million nuclei from human, macaque, and marmoset spanning eight major structures of the BG circuit. Integration of cross-species transcriptomics, epigenomics, spatial transcriptomics, morphology and electrophysiology enabled multimodal characterization of BG cell types and reveals both conserved and divergent features. Aligning to existing mouse and human whole brain atlases identifies ~60 homologous cell types conserved over 80 million years of mammalian evolution. We identified a novel subtype of medium spiny neurons (MSN) that shares molecular, electrophysiological and morphological features clarifying the identities of hybrid MSN types. Comparative cis-regulatory analysis reveals deeply conserved DNA sequence grammars that encode cell identity and enable viral targeting strategies. This comprehensive, multi-omic, cross-species BG atlas serves as a foundational resource for understanding circuit evolution, function, and disease."

Data citation

No data citation listed

Funding agency

NIMH

Grant numbers

1U01MH114812, UM1MH130981

Access

open

License

CC BY 4.0