Seidlitz, J;
Mallard, TT;
Vogel, JW;
Lee, YH;
Warrier, V;
Ball, G;
Hansson, O;
... Alexander-Bloch, AF; + view all
(2023)
The molecular genetic landscape of human brain size variation.
Cell Reports
, 42
(11)
, Article 113439. 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.113439.
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Abstract
Human brain size changes dynamically through early development, peaks in adolescence, and varies up to 2-fold among adults. However, the molecular genetic underpinnings of interindividual variation in brain size remain unknown. Here, we leveraged postmortem brain RNA sequencing and measurements of brain weight (BW) in 2,531 individuals across three independent datasets to identify 928 genome-wide significant associations with BW. Genes associated with higher or lower BW showed distinct neurodevelopmental trajectories and spatial patterns that mapped onto functional and cellular axes of brain organization. Expression of BW genes was predictive of interspecies differences in brain size, and bioinformatic annotation revealed enrichment for neurogenesis and cell-cell communication. Genome-wide, transcriptome-wide, and phenome-wide association analyses linked BW gene sets to neuroimaging measurements of brain size and brain-related clinical traits. Cumulatively, these results represent a major step toward delineating the molecular pathways underlying human brain size variation in health and disease.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The molecular genetic landscape of human brain size variation |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.113439 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2023.113439 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Imaging Neuroscience |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10183040 |
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