Maps of the nervous system inspire experiments and theories in neuroscience. Advances in molecular biology over the past decades have revolutionized the definition of cell and tissue identity. Spatial transcriptomics has opened up a new era in neuroanatomy, where the unsupervised and unbiased exploration of the molecular signatures of tissue organization will give rise to a new generation of brain maps. We propose that the molecular classification of brain regions on the basis of their gene expression profile can circumvent subjective neuroanatomical definitions and produce common reference frameworks that can incorporate cell types, connectivity, activity, and other modalities. Here we review the technological and conceptual advances made possible by spatial transcriptomics in the context of advancing neuroanatomy and discuss how molecular neuroanatomy can redefine mapping of the nervous system. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Neuroscience, Volume 44 is July 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

中文翻译：

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空间转录组学：哺乳动物大脑的分子图谱。

神经系统图激发了神经科学的实验和理论。过去几十年来，分子生物学的进步彻底改变了细胞和组织特性的定义。空间转录组学开创了神经解剖学的新纪元，在该纪元中，无监督和无偏见的组织组织分子特征探索将产生新一代的脑图谱。我们建议根据其基因表达谱对大脑区域进行分子分类可以规避主观神经解剖学定义，并产生可以纳入细胞类型，连通性，活性和其他方式的通用参考框架。在这里，我们回顾了在先进的神经解剖学背景下空间转录组学所带来的技术和概念上的进步，并讨论了分子神经解剖学如何重新定义神经系统的图谱。《神经科学年度评论》（第44卷）的最终最终在线发布日期为2021年7月。有关修订的估算，请参见http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates。