Developmental changes in human neocortical transcriptome revealed by RNA-seq

A comprehensive understanding of developmental changes in gene expression in the human brain is crucial for elucidating many neurological and developmental processes. Microarray technology has measured such expression differences genome-wide, but a comprehensive, non-array transcriptional map during brain development has not yet been generated. In this paper, we used RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) to delineate the per-base expression and splicing developmental changes in the human temporal lobe. We found that the majority (71%) of annotated genes are transcriptionally active in the neocortex, and we identified 6,200 genes enriched in a particular stage. We found high levels of transcription outside previously identified gene units, particularly in the fetal brain. We found specific families of genes showed developmental changes of expression the neocortex, particularly the zinc finger (ZNF) transcription factor family in the fetal temporal brain. This enrichment suggests critical roles for these regulatory factors in the transcriptional orchestration of temporal neocortical development.