Mapping gene expression in the developing mouse brain

描述(申请人提供)：大脑中的基因表达对于理解大脑发育的基因控制很重要。由于实验室小鼠与人类有许多共同的基因和疾病基因，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，小鼠大脑中大规模的基因表达数据成为可能，几个小鼠基因表达数据库正在建立中。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，有必要创建发育中的小鼠大脑的三维参考图谱和工具，这些工具可以将基因表达数据映射到图谱中，并进行分析和可视化。这项拟议的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的三维参考图谱。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关于发育过程中形态变化的信息。这项拟议的研究还将开发将基因表达数据映射到参考图谱的工具。选定的一组基因表达将被绘制、验证和研究。绘制的基因表达数据还将帮助我们在正在开发的小鼠脑图谱中定义更详细的结构。 公共卫生相关性：在这个项目中，将开发发育中的小鼠大脑的三维图谱，作为绘制高分辨率基因表达数据的参考。这些地图集将包括高分辨率、丰富的对比度和组平均数据，涵盖大脑发育过程中从胚胎到新生儿的关键阶段。还将开发、验证和使用将基因表达数据映射到地图集的技术和软件，以研究基因表达和解剖表型之间的关系，并进一步丰富地图集的结构注释。

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.