Transcriptomes of post-mitotic neurons identify the usage of alternative pathways during adult and embryonic neuronal differentiation.

Background Understanding the mechanisms by which neurons are generated and specified, and how they integrate into functional circuits is key to being able to treat disorders of the nervous system and acute brain trauma. Much of what we know about neuronal differentiation has been studied in developing embryos, but differentiation steps may be very different during adult neurogenesis. For this reason, we compared the transcriptomes of newly differentiated neurons in zebrafish embryos and adults.