Location, Location, Location: Microglia Are Where They Live

A deep dive into microglia form and function reveals startling regional heterogeneity in number, morphology, activity, and transcriptomics in nuclei relevant to motor control and motivation (De Biase et al., 2017). Differences appear 2 weeks after birth, and depletion and recolonization in adulthood recapitulate the original phenotype, implicating local environment as mediators of microglial phenotype.