scholarly journals COUP-TFI specifies the medial entorhinal cortex identity and induces differential cell adhesion to determine the integrity of its boundary with neocortex

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (27) ◽  
pp. eabf6808
Author(s):  
Jia Feng ◽  
Wen-Hsin Hsu ◽  
Denis Patterson ◽  
Ching-San Tseng ◽  
Hsiang-Wei Hsing ◽  
...  

Development of cortical regions with precise, sharp, and regular boundaries is essential for physiological function. However, little is known of the mechanisms ensuring these features. Here, we show that determination of the boundary between neocortex and medial entorhinal cortex (MEC), two abutting cortical regions generated from the same progenitor lineage, relies on COUP-TFI (chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter–transcription factor I), a patterning transcription factor with graded expression in cortical progenitors. In contrast with the classical paradigm, we found that increased COUP-TFI expression expands MEC, creating protrusions and disconnected ectopic tissue. We further developed a mathematical model that predicts that neuronal specification and differential cell affinity contribute to the emergence of an instability region and boundary sharpness. Correspondingly, we demonstrated that high expression of COUP-TFI induces MEC cell fate and protocadherin 19 expression. Thus, we conclude that a sharp boundary requires a subtle interplay between patterning transcription factors and differential cell affinity.

Development ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 129 (7) ◽  
pp. 1763-1774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Cameron ◽  
Scott G. Clark ◽  
Joan B. McDermott ◽  
Eric Aamodt ◽  
H. Robert Horvitz

During Caenorhabditis elegans development, the patterns of cell divisions, cell fates and programmed cell deaths are reproducible from animal to animal. In a search for mutants with abnormal patterns of programmed cell deaths in the ventral nerve cord, we identified mutations in the gene pag-3, which encodes a zinc-finger transcription factor similar to the mammalian Gfi-1 and Drosophila Senseless proteins. In pag-3 mutants, specific neuroblasts express the pattern of divisions normally associated with their mother cells, producing with each reiteration an abnormal anterior daughter neuroblast and an extra posterior daughter cell that either terminally differentiates or undergoes programmed cell death, which accounts for the extra cell corpses seen in pag-3 mutants. In addition, some neurons do not adopt their normal fates in pag-3 mutants. The phenotype of pag-3 mutants and the expression pattern of the PAG-3 protein suggest that in some lineages pag-3 couples the determination of neuroblast cell fate to subsequent neuronal differentiation. We propose that pag-3 counterparts in other organisms determine blast cell identity and for this reason may lead to cell lineage defects and cell proliferation when mutated.


Development ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 129 (14) ◽  
pp. 3295-3309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Egger ◽  
Ronny Leemans ◽  
Thomas Loop ◽  
Lars Kammermeier ◽  
Yun Fan ◽  
...  

In Drosophila, the glial cells missing (gcm) gene encodes a transcription factor that controls the determination of glial versus neuronal fate. In gcm mutants, presumptive glial cells are transformed into neurons and, conversely, when gcm is ectopically misexpressed, presumptive neurons become glia. Although gcm is thought to initiate glial cell development through its action on downstream genes that execute the glial differentiation program, little is known about the identity of these genes. To identify gcm downstream genes in a comprehensive manner, we used genome-wide oligonucleotide arrays to analyze differential gene expression in wild-type embryos versus embryos in which gcm is misexpressed throughout the neuroectoderm. Transcripts were analyzed at two defined temporal windows during embryogenesis. During the first period of initial gcm action on determination of glial cell precursors, over 400 genes were differentially regulated. Among these are numerous genes that encode other transcription factors, which underscores the master regulatory role of gcm in gliogenesis. During a second later period, when glial cells had already differentiated, over 1200 genes were differentially regulated. Most of these genes, including many genes for chromatin remodeling factors and cell cycle regulators, were not differentially expressed at the early stage, indicating that the genetic control of glial fate determination is largely different from that involved in maintenance of differentiated cells. At both stages, glial-specific genes were upregulated and neuron-specific genes were downregulated, supporting a model whereby gcm promotes glial development by activating glial genes, while simultaneously repressing neuronal genes. In addition, at both stages, numerous genes that were not previously known to be involved in glial development were differentially regulated and, thus, identified as potential new downstream targets of gcm. For a subset of the differentially regulated genes, tissue-specific in vivo expression data were obtained that confirmed the transcript profiling results. This first genome-wide analysis of gene expression events downstream of a key developmental transcription factor presents a novel level of insight into the repertoire of genes that initiate and maintain cell fate choices in CNS development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin S. Mallory ◽  
Kiah Hardcastle ◽  
Malcolm G. Campbell ◽  
Alexander Attinger ◽  
Isabel I. C. Low ◽  
...  

AbstractNeural circuits generate representations of the external world from multiple information streams. The navigation system provides an exceptional lens through which we may gain insights about how such computations are implemented. Neural circuits in the medial temporal lobe construct a map-like representation of space that supports navigation. This computation integrates multiple sensory cues, and, in addition, is thought to require cues related to the individual’s movement through the environment. Here, we identify multiple self-motion signals, related to the position and velocity of the head and eyes, encoded by neurons in a key node of the navigation circuitry of mice, the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC). The representation of these signals is highly integrated with other cues in individual neurons. Such information could be used to compute the allocentric location of landmarks from visual cues and to generate internal representations of space.


Genetics ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 165 (3) ◽  
pp. 1623-1628
Author(s):  
Hediye Nese Cinar ◽  
Keri L Richards ◽  
Kavita S Oommen ◽  
Anna P Newman

Abstract We isolated egl-13 mutants in which the cells of the Caenorhabditis elegans uterus initially appeared to develop normally but then underwent an extra round of cell division. The data suggest that egl-13 is required for maintenance of the cell fate.


2021 ◽  
pp. 113259
Author(s):  
Jena B. Hales ◽  
Nicole T. Reitz ◽  
Jonathan L. Vincze ◽  
Amber C. Ocampo ◽  
Stefan Leutgeb ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (13) ◽  
pp. 6713
Author(s):  
Romana Bohuslavova ◽  
Ondrej Smolik ◽  
Jessica Malfatti ◽  
Zuzana Berkova ◽  
Zaneta Novakova ◽  
...  

Diabetes is a metabolic disease that involves the death or dysfunction of the insulin-secreting β cells in the pancreas. Consequently, most diabetes research is aimed at understanding the molecular and cellular bases of pancreatic development, islet formation, β-cell survival, and insulin secretion. Complex interactions of signaling pathways and transcription factor networks regulate the specification, growth, and differentiation of cell types in the developing pancreas. Many of the same regulators continue to modulate gene expression and cell fate of the adult pancreas. The transcription factor NEUROD1 is essential for the maturation of β cells and the expansion of the pancreatic islet cell mass. Mutations of the Neurod1 gene cause diabetes in humans and mice. However, the different aspects of the requirement of NEUROD1 for pancreas development are not fully understood. In this study, we investigated the role of NEUROD1 during the primary and secondary transitions of mouse pancreas development. We determined that the elimination of Neurod1 impairs the expression of key transcription factors for α- and β-cell differentiation, β-cell proliferation, insulin production, and islets of Langerhans formation. These findings demonstrate that the Neurod1 deletion altered the properties of α and β endocrine cells, resulting in severe neonatal diabetes, and thus, NEUROD1 is required for proper activation of the transcriptional network and differentiation of functional α and β cells.


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