Human-specific morphoregulatory signatures in basal radial glia characterise neocortex evolution
Abstract
As the seat of our cognition, the human neocortex is an object of immense fascination. Human neocortex expansion during evolution has been attributed to an increase in the proliferative capacity of neural progenitor cells during development, particularly basal radial glia. Despite their evolutionary relevance, the genomic changes driving human basal radial glia biology remain uncharacterised. We use comparative chromatin and transcriptional profiling of neural progenitor cells isolated from gorilla, chimpanzee and human cerebral organoids to identify cis-regulatory elements that have gained activity in humans. Focusing specifically on basal radial glia, we discover that morphoregulatory enhancer activity and gene expression signatures distinguish human basal radial glia from other great apes. Functional analysis of the morphoregulatory genes FAM107A and CNGA3 in human organoids reveals that these genes contribute to the morphological complexity of human basal radial glia. Taken together, our inter-species comparison of basal radial glia suggests that human-specific morphoregulatory signatures characterise neocortex evolution.
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BibTeX
@article{schutze2026humanspecific,
title = {{Human-specific morphoregulatory signatures in basal radial glia characterise neocortex evolution}},
author = {Theresa M. Schütze and Annika Kolodziejczyk and Nora Ditzer and Silvia Vangelisti and Emanuele Capra and Jeong-Eun Lee and Ilaria Chiaradia and Vida Kufrin and Seiya Yamada and Jula Peters and Maximilian Krause and Christina Eugster Oegema and Razvan P. Derihaci and Cahit Birdir and Takashi Namba and Alexander A. Wurm and Ulrich Martin and Pauline Wimberger and Katherine R. Long and Madeline A. Lancaster and Nereo Kalebic and Boyan Bonev and Mareike Albert},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-78474-0},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78474-0},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Human-specific morphoregulatory signatures in basal radial glia characterise neocortex evolution
AU - Theresa M. Schütze
AU - Annika Kolodziejczyk
AU - Nora Ditzer
AU - Silvia Vangelisti
AU - Emanuele Capra
AU - Jeong-Eun Lee
AU - Ilaria Chiaradia
AU - Vida Kufrin
AU - Seiya Yamada
AU - Jula Peters
AU - Maximilian Krause
AU - Christina Eugster Oegema
AU - Razvan P. Derihaci
AU - Cahit Birdir
AU - Takashi Namba
AU - Alexander A. Wurm
AU - Ulrich Martin
AU - Pauline Wimberger
AU - Katherine R. Long
AU - Madeline A. Lancaster
AU - Nereo Kalebic
AU - Boyan Bonev
AU - Mareike Albert
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/09
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-78474-0
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78474-0
AB - As the seat of our cognition, the human neocortex is an object of immense fascination. Human neocortex expansion during evolution has been attributed to an increase in the proliferative capacity of neural progenitor cells during development, particularly basal radial glia. Despite their evolutionary relevance, the genomic changes driving human basal radial glia biology remain uncharacterised. We use comparative chromatin and transcriptional profiling of neural progenitor cells isolated from gorilla, chimpanzee and human cerebral organoids to identify cis-regulatory elements that have gained activity in humans. Focusing specifically on basal radial glia, we discover that morphoregulatory enhancer activity and gene expression signatures distinguish human basal radial glia from other great apes. Functional analysis of the morphoregulatory genes FAM107A and CNGA3 in human organoids reveals that these genes contribute to the morphological complexity of human basal radial glia. Taken together, our inter-species comparison of basal radial glia suggests that human-specific morphoregulatory signatures characterise neocortex evolution.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -