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Lineage divergence of activity-driven transcription and evolution of cognitive ability

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 19, pages 9–15 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Excitation–transcription coupling shapes network formation during brain development and controls neuronal survival, synaptic function and cognitive skills in the adult. New studies have uncovered differences in the transcriptional responses to synaptic activity between humans and mice. These differences are caused both by the emergence of lineage-specific activity-regulated genes and by the acquisition of signal-responsive DNA elements in gene regulatory regions that determine whether a gene can be transcriptionally induced by synaptic activity or alter the extent of its inducibility. Such evolutionary divergence may have contributed to lineage-related advancements in cognitive abilities.

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Figure 1: Linking evolutionary remodelling of promoter architectures to altered activity-dependent gene expression and cognitive abilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UK Dementia Research Institute at The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Medical School, 47 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh, EH16 4TJ, UK

    Giles E. Hardingham

  2. Department of Neurobiology, Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences (IZN), Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany

    Priit Pruunsild & Hilmar Bading

  3. Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Michael E. Greenberg

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Contributions

H.B., G.E.H. and P.P. contributed equally to researching the data for the article and making substantial contributions to discussion of content. H.B., P.P. and G.E.H. wrote the article. H.B, G.E.H., P.P. and M.E.G. contributed to reviewing and/or editing of the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Hilmar Bading.

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Hardingham, G., Pruunsild, P., Greenberg, M. et al. Lineage divergence of activity-driven transcription and evolution of cognitive ability. Nat Rev Neurosci 19, 9–15 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.138

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