In the last few years we assist to an unexpected deluge of genomic data on hypothalamic development and structure. Perhaps most surprisingly, the Lateral Zone has received much attention too. The new information focuses first of all on transcriptional heterogeneity. Many already known and a number of hitherto unknown lateral hypothalamic neurons have been described to an enormous degree of detail. Maybe the most surprising novel discoveries are two: First, some restricted regions of the embryonic forebrain neuroepithelium generate specific LHA neurons, either GABAergic or glutamatergic. Second, evidence is mounting that supports the existence of numerous kinds of “bilingual” lateral hypothalamic neurons, expressing (and releasing) glutamate and GABA both as well as assorted neuropeptides. This is not accepted by all, and it could be that genomic researchers need a common set of rules to interpret their data (sensitivity, significance, age of analysis). In any case, some of the new results appear to confirm hypotheses about the ability of the hypothalamus and in particular its Lateral Zone to achieve physiological flexibility on a fixed connectivity (“biochemical switching”). Furthermore, the results succinctly reviewed here are the basis for future advances, since the transcriptional databases generated can now be mined e.g. for adhesion genes, to figure out the causes of the peculiar histology of the Lateral Zone; or for ion channel genes, to clarify present and future electrophysiological data. And with the specific expression data about small subpopulations of neurons, their connections can now be specifically labeled, revealing novel relations with functional significance.

在过去的几年中，我们协助处理了大量关于下丘脑发育和结构的基因组数据。也许最令人惊讶的是，横向区域也受到了很多关注。新信息首先关注转录异质性。许多已知的和许多迄今未知的下丘脑外侧神经元已被详细描述。也许最令人惊讶的新发现有两个：首先，胚胎前脑神经上皮的一些受限区域产生特定的 LHA 神经元，无论是 GABA 能还是谷氨酸能。其次，越来越多的证据支持存在多种“双语”下丘脑外侧神经元，表达（和释放）谷氨酸和 GABA 以及各种神经肽。这不被所有人接受，基因组研究人员可能需要一套通用的规则来解释他们的数据（敏感性、重要性、分析年龄）。无论如何，一些新结果似乎证实了关于下丘脑特别是其侧区在固定连接（“生化转换”）上实现生理灵活性的能力的假设。此外，这里简要回顾的结果是未来进展的基础，因为现在可以挖掘生成的转录数据库，例如粘附基因，以找出侧区特殊组织学的原因；或用于离子通道基因，以阐明当前和未来的电生理数据。并且有了关于小神经元亚群的特定表达数据，它们的连接现在可以被专门标记，