CARTA Glossary

Displaying 1 - 36 of 36 defined words for "Cellular and Molecular Explorations of Anthropogeny". To see all CARTA defined words, please view the complete glossary.

Word	Definition	Related Vocabulary
Allele	Alternative DNA sequence at the same locus (location on the chromosome)	DNA sequence
Antagonistic Pleiotropy	A phenomenon whereby multiple influences of the same gene have opposite effects on the fitness of the organism
ARHGAP11B	A human-specific protein coding gene that promotes amplification of basal progenitors in the subventricular zone, producing more neurons during fetal cortical development. It has been implicated in the evolutionary expansion of the human brain neocortex.	Basal Progenitor, Neocortex, Subventricular Zone
Basal Ganglia (Brain)	Subcortical nuclei in the base of the forebrains of vertebrates, including humans, which are involved with a variety of functions including control of voluntary motor movements, procedural learning, and routine behaviors or “habits” such as teeth grinding, eye movements, cognition, and emotion.
Basal Progenitor	A cortical neural progenitor cell which undergoes replication and division. Basal progenitor cells are a subset that lie in the subventricular zone and lack contact with the neighboring ventricle—only contacting the outer, basal, surface—and contribute to the expansion of the outer cortex.	ARHGAP11B, Subventricular Zone
Basal Radial Glia	A primary progenitor cell capable of generating neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. Basal radial glia and outer radial glia are defined by their position, morphology, and genetic phenotype.	Neural progenitor cell (NPC)
Cranial Neural Crest Cells	Cells that become the structures of the endocranium and face.
Daughter Neuron	Resulting cell(s) formed when neural stem cells or progenitor cells undergo cellular division.	Neural stem cell (NSC)
FOXP2	A gene in humans that encodes for a transcription factor protein and is involved in the production of speech.
Genetic Adaptation	A biological characteristic with a heritable basis that improves reproduction and/or survival and results from evolution by natural selection.
Genetic Drift	Change in allele frequencies, including fixation and loss, by chance.	Allele
Germinal Zone	A region where cell division and proliferation occurs during vertebrate central nervous system development consisting of 2 layers lining the ventricles (ventricular zone and subventricular zone).
Hemideletion	One of two paired chromosomes is affected by a deletion. The other chromosome is intact.
Indel	An insertion or deletion of a DNA sequence.	DNA sequence
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)	Somatic (body) cells that are artificially reprogrammed to an embryonic-like stem cell state and differentiated into other types of cells.
Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin (mTOR)	A protein kinase, which in humans is encoded by the MTOR gene.
Medium Spiny Neurons	A special type of GABAergic inhibitory cell representing 95% of neurons within the human striatum, a basal ganglia structure.	Basal Ganglia (Brain)
Neocortex	A part of the cerebral cortex concerned with sight, hearing, and touch in mammals, regarded as the most recently evolved part of the cortex.
Nerve	A bundle of fibers that transmits impulses of sensation to the brain or spinal cord, and impulses from these to the muscles and organs.
Neural progenitor cell (NPC)	Cells that are capable of dividing a limited number of times and have the capacity to differentiate into a restricted repertoire of neuronal and glial cell types.	Glia (neuroglia)
Neural stem cell (NSC)	A self-renewing, multipotent cell that generates the neurons and glia of the nervous system of all animals during embryonic development. Some persist in the adult vertebrate brain and continue to produce neurons throughout life.	Glia (neuroglia)
Nuclear Pore Complex	Protein and ribonucleoprotein transport channels in the nuclear envelop of eukaryotic cells. Evolved ~ 1.5 billion years ago. While the primary role of NPCs is to regulate nucleo–cytoplasmic transport, recent research suggests that certain NPC proteins have additionally acquired the role of affecting gene expression at the nuclear periphery and in the nucleoplasm in metazoans.
Nucleoporin 98 (Nup98)	A protein coding gene that plays a role in the nuclear pore complex assembly and/or maintenance. Associated diseases range from Myelodysplastic Syndrome and Acute Monocytic Leukemia.	Nuclear Pore Complex
Organoid	Cell/tissue culture in vitro that aims to mimic organ structure and function.
Outer Radial Glia	Found in the outer subventricular zone of the neocortex, outer radial glia preferentially express genes related to extracellular matrix formation, migration, and stemness.	Extracellular matrix
Outer Subventricular Zone	A uniquely structured germinal zone that generates the expanded primate supragranular layers.
POM121	A gene that encodes for transmembrane nucleoporin, a protein that localizes to the inner nuclear membrane and forms a core component of the nuclear pore complex, which mediates transport to and from the nucleus.
Pyramidal neurons	A type of neuron found in the mammalian cerebral cortex, the hippocampus, and amygdala of the brain. They are the most abundant excitatory cell type and receive both excitatory and inhibitory input.
Reading-Frame	A way of dividing the sequence of nucleotides in a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) molecule into a set of consecutive, non-overlapping triplets called codons.
Reading-Frame Shift	A genetic mutation caused by indels (insertions or deletions) of a number of nucleotides in a DNA sequence that is not divisible by three.	Reading-Frame
Sequencing	Reading the order of nucleotides in DNA.	Coverage, Shotgun
Single Clonal Lineage Analysis	A system for labeling and following a single progenitor cell and its daughter cells as they proliferate and mature.
Species	A population whose individuals can mate with one another to produce viable and fertile offspring. This is a debated definition and the concept is problematic for extinct fossil organisms for which DNA is not available. This definition is problematic in regard to bacteria as they can exchange genetic material across widely separate taxa.	Bacteria
SRGAP2	A gene on chromosome 1 that encodes for a protein that plays a role in cortical neuron development. Duplications of this gene are unique only to humans.
Subventricular Zone	Describes both embryonic and adult neural tissues in the vertebrate nervous system.	ARHGAP11B, Basal Progenitor, Outer Radial Glia
Ventricular Zone	A transient embryonic layer of tissue containing neural stem cells, principally radial glial cells, of the central nervous system of vertebrates.	Basal Radial Glia, Neural stem cell (NSC), Outer Radial Glia