A factor analysis of global GABAergic gene expression in human brain identifies specificity in response to chronic alcohol and cocaine exposure.

Although expression patterns of GABAergic genes in rodent brain have largely been elucidated, no comprehensive studies have been performed in human brain. The purpose of this study was to identify global patterns of GABAergic gene expression in healthy adults, including trans and cis effects in the GABAA gene clusters, before determining the effects of chronic alcohol and cocaine exposure on gene expression in the hippocampus. RNA-Seq data from 'BrainSpan' was obtained across 16 brain regions from postmortem samples from nine adults.

The rhesus macaque is three times as diverse but more closely equivalent in damaging coding variation as compared to the human.

Background: As a model organism in biomedicine, the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) is the most widely used nonhuman primate. Although a draft genome sequence was completed in 2007, there has been no systematic genome-wide comparison of genetic variation of this species to humans. Comparative analysis of functional and nonfunctional diversity in this highly abundant and adaptable non-human primate could inform its use as a model for human biology, and could reveal how variation in population history and size alters patterns and levels of sequence variation in primates.