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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on October 25, 2006
Cerebral Cortex 2007 17(8):1918-1933; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl102
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© 2006 The Authors
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Comparative Analysis of Layer-Specific Genes in Mammalian Neocortex

Akiya Watakabe1,2, Noritaka Ichinohe3, Sonoko Ohsawa1, Tsutomu Hashikawa4, Yusuke Komatsu1, Kathleen S. Rockland3 and Tetsuo Yamamori1,2

1 Division of Brain Biology, National Institute for Basic Biology, 38 Nishigonaka Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan, 2 Department of Basic Biology, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, 38 Nishigonaka Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan, 3 Laboratories for Cortical Organization and Systematics, 4 Neural Architecture, Brain Science Institute, RIKEN, Wako 351-0198, Japan

Address correspondence to email: yamamori{at}nibb.ac.jp.

We examined the expression patterns of 4 layer-specific genes in monkey and mouse cortices by fluorescence double in situ hybridization. Based on their coexpression profiles, we were able to distinguish several subpopulations of deep layer neurons. One group was characterized by the expression of ER81 and the lack of Nurr1 mRNAs and mainly localized to layer 5. In monkeys, this neuronal group was further subdivided by 5-HT2C receptor mRNA expression. The 5-HT2C+/ER81+ neurons were located in layer 5B in most cortical areas, but they intruded layer 6 in the primary visual area (V1). Another group of neurons, in monkey layer 6, was characterized by Nurr1 mRNA expression and was further subdivided as Nurr1+/connective tissue growth factor (CTGF)– and Nurr1+/CTGF+ neurons in layers 6A and 6B, respectively. The Nurr1+/CTGF+ neurons coexpressed ER81 mRNA in monkeys but not in mice. On the basis of tracer injections in 3 monkeys, we found that the Nurr1+ neurons in layer 6A send some corticocortical, but not corticopulvinar, projections. Although the Nurr1+/CTGF– neurons were restricted to lateral regions in the mouse cortex, they were present throughout the monkey cortex. Thus, an architectonic heterogeneity across areas and species was revealed for the neuronal subpopulations with distinct gene expression profiles.

Key Words: cerebral cortex • corticothalamic • cytoarchitecture • feedback • retrograde tracer • serotonin

Funding to pay the Open Access publication charges for this article was provided by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas (Molecular Brain Science) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (No. 17024055).


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