Abstract
Results of previous RNA-DNA hybridization experiments have demonstrated that the mammalian brain expresses 2-to 5-fold more of the haploid genome than other somatic tissues or organs. The striking complexity of gene expression in brain raises fundamental questions regarding the ultimate function of this large amount of genetic information and the degree to which it participates in the development and maintenance of tissue-specific structure and function. Here, we review our recent results obtained from a comparative study of the diversity of gene expression in brain. In this work, RNA-DNA saturation hybridization was used to estimate the sequence complexity of nuclear and polysomal RNA from rat, goldfish and squid brain. Additionally, the data were compared to the complexity of RNA from a typical non-neural tissue of each of these animal species. Our findings suggest that, as is the case in mammals, the diversity of gene expression in the CNS of teleosts and cephalopod mollusks is greater than in non-neural tissue. Importantly, however, the differences in the complexity of goldfish and squid brain RNA relative to that of non-neural tissue is significantly less than that observed in several mammalian species.
Published Version
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