Join us for an afternoon Neuroscience Seminar with coffee/tea & buns!
We kindly ask you to let us know if you wish to attend the event. This will allow us to plan an appropriate amount of food.
Program
15:15 Coffee/Tea & Buns
15:30 -16:00 Professor Emre Yaksi
"Searching for the traces of mammalian cortical evolution in zebrafish brain" - Professor Emre Yaksi, Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience (NTNU).
Zebrafish are often left out of the discussions of vertebrate cortical evolution. However, accumulating number of evidence have shown that juvenile and adult zebrafish can perform cognitively demanding tasks such as spatial learning, working memory, social behaviors. Some of these complex behaviors were attributed to distinct forebrain lesions in teleosts, and few genetic ablations in zebrafish. However, the link between zebrafish forebrain and vertebrate cortical evolution is not well defined. Here, we generated the first sub-cellular resolution Atlas of Zebrafish Transcriptomic Encephalic Cytoarchitecture (AZTEC) of 99 multiplexed genes for >400.000 neurons. Our results revealed multiple excitatory and inhibitory neuron types and non-neuronal cells across zebrafish forebrain and propose distinct marker genes. We observed that while some of these cell types are dispersed widely, several inhibitory and excitatory neuron classes are organized into spatially distinct forebrain nuclei. Spatio-molecular clustering of AZTEC data and 3D alignment onto adult zebrafish brain atlas confirm several previously proposed forebrain nuclei, but also reveal multiple novel substructures that were not previously known. Aligning AZTEC with single-cell transcriptome of zebrafish and other vertebrates revealed several cell types and cortical/subcortical regions that are conserved across vertebrates. Evolutionarily identified zebrafish forebrain regions mapped by AZTEC exhibit spatio-temporally distinct resting-state activity and functional connectivity.
16:15-16:45 Professor Tommaso Pizzorusso
"An Atlas of Perineuronal Net Distribution and Colocalization with Parvalbumin in the Adult Mouse Brain" - Professor Tommaso Pizzorusso, BIO@SNS laboratory, Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa and Institute of Neuroscience CNR, Pisa.
Perineuronal nets (PNNs) surround specific neurons in the brain and are involved in various forms of plasticity and clinical conditions. However, our understanding of the PNN role in these phenomena is limited by the lack of highly quantitative maps of PNN distribution and association with specific cell types. Here, we present the first comprehensive atlas of PNN distribution (in Allen Brain Atlas coordinates) and colocalization with parvalbumin (PV) cells for over 600 regions of the adult mouse brain. Data analysis showed that PV expression is a good predictor of PNN aggregation. In the cortex, PNNs are dramatically enriched in layer 4 of all primary sensory areas in correlation with thalamocortical input density, and their distribution mirrors intracortical connectivity patterns. Gene expression analysis identified many PNN correlated genes. Strikingly, PNN anticorrelated transcripts were enriched in synaptic plasticity genes, generalizing PNN role as circuit stability factors. Overall, this atlas offers novel resources for understanding the organizational principles of the brain extracellular matrix.
This seminar is organized in conjunction to Sverre Grødem’ PhD Defense and is part of the BMB-FYSCELL seminar series.