Open Access

Sumit Kumar Vohra, Kristian Herrera, Tinatini Tavhelidse-Suck, Simon Knoblich, Ali Seleit, Jonathan Boulanger-Weill, Sydney Chambule, Ariel Aspiras, Cristina Santoriello, Owen Randlett, Joachim Wittbrodt, Alexander Aulehla, Jeff W. Lichtman, Mark Fishman, Hans-Christian Hege, Daniel Baum, Florian Engert, Yasuko Isoe

• Studying neural mechanisms in complementary model organisms from different ecological niches in the same animal class can leverage the comparative brain analysis at the cellular level. To advance such a direction, we developed a unified brain atlas platform and specialized tools that allowed us to quantitatively compare neural structures in two teleost larvae, medaka (Oryzias latipes) and zebrafish (Danio rerio). Leveraging this quantitative approach we found that most brain regions are similar but some subpopulations are unique in each species. Specifically, we confirmed the existence of a clear dorsal pallial region in the telencephalon in medaka lacking in zebrafish. Further, our approach allows for extraction of differentially expressed genes in both species, and for quantitative comparison of neural activity at cellular resolution. The web-based and interactive nature of this atlas platform will facilitate the teleost community’s research and its easy extensibility will encourage contributions to its continuous expansion.