Abstract
Statistical properties such as distribution and correlation signatures were investigated using a temporal database of common neurodevelopmental events in the three species most frequently used in experimental studies, rat, mouse, and macaque. There was a fine nexus between phylogenetic proximity and empirically derived dates of the occurrences of 40 common events including the neurogenesis of cortical layers and outgrowth milestones of developing axonal projections. Exponential and power-law approximations to the distribution of the events reveal strikingly similar decay patterns in rats and mice when compared to macaques. Subsequent hierarchical clustering of the common event timings also captures phylogenetic proximity, an association further supported by multivariate linear regression data. These preliminary results suggest that statistical analyses of the timing of developmental milestones may offer a novel measure of phylogenetic classifications. This may have added pragmatic value in the specific support it offers for the reliability of rat/mouse comparative modeling, as well as in the broader implications for the potential of meta-analyses using databases assembled from the extensive empirical literature.
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Acknowledgements
This project was partially supported by NIH Grant Number P20 RR-16460 from the IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence Program of the National Center for Research Resources. The authors would like to thank Susan Lantz for helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript.
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Nagarajan, R., Clancy, B. Phylogenetic Proximity Revealed by Neurodevelopmental Event Timings. Neuroinform 6, 71–79 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12021-008-9013-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12021-008-9013-2