ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2019
Accelerated evolution of oligodendrocytes in the human brain.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers.
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Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 78 citations in OpenAlex.
- Somatic mutations and single-nucleus transcriptomics reveal uniquely human properties of neuronal aging.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Revisiting oligodendrocytes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using human multicellular stem cell models.Trends in cell biology · 2026Review
- CroCoNet: a framework for the quantitative comparison of gene regulatory networks across species.Genome biology · 2026Article
- Genomic sequence evolution underlying human neocortical interareal diversification.Genome biology · 2026Article
- Expanding canonical cortical cell type markers in the era of single-cell transcriptomics.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Region-specific cortico-striatal transcriptomic remodeling following early postnatal dopaminergic disturbance.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Conserved Cell-Type-Specific Transcriptomic Networks and Regulatory Programs Underlie Alcohol Dependence Across Mouse and Human.Research square · 2026Article
- Integration of human and mouse single-cell transcriptomes of the developing cerebellum nominates cells-of-origin for group 3 and 4 medulloblastoma.BMC cancer · 2026Article
- Single-cell spatial map of cis-regulatory elements for disease-related genes in the macaque cortex.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Primate gut microbiota induce evolutionarily salient changes in mouse neurodevelopment.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Shaping the Neocortex: Radial Glia and Astrocytes in Development and Evolution.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Review
- Co-Conservation of synaptic gene expression and circuitry in collicular neurons.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Human CLOCK enhances neocortical function.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
- Decoding DNA sequence-driven evolution of the human brain epigenome at cellular resolution.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Genetic Animal Models of Idiopathic Generalized Epilepsies: What Can We Learn from Them?Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Are Oligodendrocytes the Culprits or Victims in Alzheimer's Disease.Physiological research · 2025Review
- Rare Variant Analyses in Ancestrally Diverse Cohorts Reveal Novel ADHD Risk Genes.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Inferring DNA methylation in non-skeletal tissues of ancient specimens.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Exploring the Expanded Role of Astrocytes in Primate Brain Evolution via Changes in Gene Expression.Brain, behavior and evolution · 2025Review
- Accelerated cell-type-specific regulatory evolution of the human brain.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Recent discussions of human brain evolution have largely focused on increased neuron numbers and changes in their connectivity and expression. However, it is increasingly appreciated that oligodendrocytes play important roles in cognitive function and disease. Whether both cell types follow similar or distinctive evolutionary trajectories is not known. We examined the transcriptomes of neurons and oligodendrocytes in the frontal cortex of humans, chimpanzees, and rhesus macaques. We identified human-specific trajectories of gene expression in neurons and oligodendrocytes and show that both cell types exhibit human-specific up-regulation. Moreover, oligodendrocytes have undergone more pronounced accelerated gene expression evolution in the human lineage compared to neurons. We highlighted human-specific coexpression networks with specific functions. Our data suggest that oligodendrocyte human-specific networks are enriched for alternative splicing and transcriptional regulation. Oligodendrocyte networks are also enriched for variants associated with schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Such enrichments were not found in neuronal networks. These results offer a glimpse into the molecular mechanisms of oligodendrocytes during evolution and how such mechanisms are associated with neuropsychiatric disorders.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.