Fig. 2: Changes in the transcriptional state of brain cells across the human lifespan.
From: Single-cell transcriptomic and genomic changes in the ageing human brain
a, Clusters plotted by donor contribution as a percentage of total cells in the cluster. L2/3-2 and Ast-3 are composed nearly completely of nuclei from infant donors. b, GO terms derived from differentially expressed genes upregulated in infant-specific clusters plotted as general categories (see Supplementary Table 5 for a full list of terms and category designations). Development-related terms (shades of green) are most common. c,d, MERFISH section from a 0.4-year-old male donor (c) and a 15-year-old female donor (d), showing correct laminar positioning. Circles correspond to excitatory neurons and are coloured according to marker-gene expression (red, CUX2 (L2/3); green, RORB (L4); blue, HS3ST4 (L5/6); yellow, CUX2 and RORB co-expression; teal, RORB and HS3ST4 co-expression). x- and y-axis values reflect pixel positions e, Contribution of OPCs (top) and oligodendrocytes (bottom) to the total nuclei identified in each donor (*P < 0.05). f, Transcriptional variability in IN-SST neurons. Variability significantly increases in neurons from elderly donors. Box plots depict median and first and third quartiles. Whiskers show 1.5 times the interquartile range (IQR) beyond the first and third quartiles (P = 4.30 × 10−2, two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test; elderly n = 7, adult n = 9). g, Log2(elderly/adult) fold change plotted for each marker gene. Dot size corresponds to expression in each cell type. Dots circled in black have statistically significant fold changes, meeting our criteria for differential expression.
