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Young Transposable Elements Rewired Gene Regulatory Networks In Human And Chimpanzee Hippocampal Intermediate Progenitors, Sruti Patoori, Samantha M Barnada, Christopher Large, John I Murray, Marco Trizzino

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Faculty Papers

The hippocampus is associated with essential brain functions, such as learning and memory. Human hippocampal volume is significantly greater than expected compared with that of non-human apes, suggesting a recent expansion. Intermediate progenitors, which are able to undergo multiple rounds of proliferative division before a final neurogenic division, may have played a role in evolutionary hippocampal expansion. To investigate the evolution of gene regulatory networks underpinning hippocampal neurogenesis in apes, we leveraged the differentiation of human and chimpanzee induced pluripotent stem cells into TBR2 (or EOMES)-positive hippocampal intermediate progenitor cells (hpIPCs). We found that the gene networks active in hpIPCs …