Mapping gene expression in the developing mouse brain

描述（由申请人提供）：大脑中的基因表达对于理解大脑发育的遗传控制很重要。由于实验小鼠与人类有许多相同的基因和疾病位点，其基因表达模式对这一领域的研究具有重要意义。随着现代高通量技术的发展，小鼠脑内的大规模基因表达数据已经成为可能，一些小鼠基因表达数据库正在建立。为了将基因表达数据与胚胎和新生小鼠大脑的神经解剖学相结合并进行分析，需要建立发育中的小鼠大脑的三维参考图谱，以及将基因表达数据映射到图谱中并进行分析和可视化的工具。该研究将基于现代磁共振成像技术提供的高空间分辨率和丰富的组织对比度，建立一系列发育中的小鼠大脑三维参考地图集。地图集将包含结构注释/分割，更重要的是，使用先进的计算技术获得的发育过程中形态学变化的信息。拟议的研究还将开发将基因表达数据映射到参考地图集的工具。一组选定的基因表达将被定位、验证和研究。绘制的基因表达数据也将帮助我们在发育中的小鼠脑图谱中定义更详细的结构。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Gene expression in the brain is important for understanding the genetic control of brain development. Because the laboratory mouse shares many genes and disease loci with human, its gene expression patterns are important for research in this area. With modern high throughput techniques, large scale gene expression data in the mouse brain are becoming available, and several mouse gene expression databases are being established. To integrate and analyze gene expression data with neuroanatomy in the embryonic and neonatal mouse brains, it is necessary to create three dimensional reference atlases of the developing mouse brain and tools that can map gene expression data into the atlas and perform analysis and visualization. The proposed study will establish a series of three dimensional reference atlases of the developing mouse brain based on high spatial resolution and rich tissue contrast provided by modern magnetic resonance imaging techniques. The atlases will contains structural annotation/segmentation, and more importantly, information on morphological changes during development obtained using advanced computational techniques. The proposed study will also develop tools that mapping gene expression data to the reference atlases. A selected group of gene expressions will be mapped, validated, and studied. The mapped gene expression data will also help us to define more detailed structures in the developing mouse brain atlases. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: In this project, three dimensional atlases of the developing mouse brain will be developed to serve as the reference for mapping high resolution gene expression data. The atlases will consist of high resolution, rich contrast, and group average data that cover the key embryonic to neonatal stages during brain development. Techniques and software for mapping gene expression data to the atlases will also be developed, validated and used to investigate the relationship between gene expression and anatomical phenotypes as well as further enrich the structural annotation in the atlases.