Mike McConnell and his research team at the Medical School’s Center for Brain Immunology and Glia have developed a new way of understanding the brain: the Mosaic Model.
The model proposes that each neuron may have a unique genome, a departure from the traditional conception that suggests the genomes of all cells are identical. McConnell, an assistant professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, said the research began with a simple observation in neuron variation.
“We found in the study of single cell neurons that several neurons had variations in their genome,” McConnell said.
The study analyzed two types of cells: pluripotent stem cells, which are derived from neurons and have the ability to differentiate into any germ layer, and fibroblasts, which are the precursors to neurons. In this case, the pluripotent cells showed much more genome variation, indicating that such variation occurs within neurons, McConnell said.
The mosaic model takes this idea of genome variation in neurons and expands it to address potential implications for neurophysiology.
“Individual neurons are in constant communication with each other, because they are networked in circuits, so even a single genome variant neuron can influence an entire circuit,” McConnell said.
This particular study emphasizes that the genome variations in neurons is a normal process that continuously occurs in each individual, and is independent of the genome created during meiosis.
“The genome variations found in neurons are not inherited from parents, they are completely unique,” McConnell said.
The Mosaic Model may help further explain neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. These disorders cannot be directly attributed to inherited genes, and McConnell believes the answer may lie in the genomic variations in neurons that comprise the mosaic, which are also not inherited. Though each individual has a “mosaic,” specific patterns may be unique to certain disorders, he said.
Ultimately, if a certain mosaic is determined to be related to autism or schizophrenia, he said, the genes that make up this mosaic can be further analyzed to determine how their expression can be prevented.
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