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A mixed model of neuronal diversity

Two groups have sequenced RNA from thousands of single cells, making the deepest ventures yet into the origins of neuronal diversity in the neocortex of the developing mammalian brain.
  1. Ludovic Telley

    1. Ludovic Telley is in the Department of Fundamental Neuroscience, University of Lausanne, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland.

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  2. Denis Jabaudon

    1. Denis Jabaudon is in the Department of Basic Neurosciences, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.

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Biologists have long been preoccupied with classifying diverse objects into meaningful categories. Even at the beginning of genetics, Gregor Mendel classified peas as smooth or wrinkled, to infer the mechanisms underlying the inheritance of specific features. Neurons, like peas, come in different shapes and types, but how many neuronal cell types exist and how neuronal diversity emerges during development is unclear. Answering these questions is important, because the diversity of neurons determines the diversity of circuits that can be built and, by extension, the scope of an animal’s behavioural repertoire. Two groups (one writing in Nature1 and one in Science2) now investigate the origins of neuronal diversity in the developing neocortex, a brain region that is the source of mammals’ complex behavioural and cognitive abilities3.

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Nature 555, 452-454 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-02539-4

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