BARHL2 Transcription Factor Regulates the Ipsilateral/ Contralateral Subtype Divergence in Postmitotic Di1 Neurons of the Developing Spinal Cord
BARHL2 transcription factor regulates the ipsilateral/ contralateral subtype divergence in postmitotic dI1 neurons of the developing spinal cord Qian Dinga,1, Pushkar S. Joshia,1, Zheng-hua Xiea, Mengqing Xiangb, and Lin Gana,c,2 aFlaum Eye Institute and Department of Ophthalmology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642; cCollege of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310036, China; and bCenter for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and Department of Pediatrics, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854 Edited* by Constance L. Cepko, Harvard Medical School/Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, MA, and approved December 7, 2011 (received for review July 29, 2011) In the dorsal spinal cord, distinct interneuron classes relay specific regulate the binary diversification of dI1 neurons into dI1i and somatosensory information, such as touch, heat, and pain, from the dI1c subtypes remain unknown. The mammalian Bar class TFs, periphery to higher brain centers via ipsilateral and contralateral BARHL1 and BARHL2, both ATOH1 downstream targets, are axonal pathways. The transcriptional mechanisms by which dorsal potential candidates because their ectopic expression in the dorsal interneurons choose between ipsilateral and contralateral projec- spinal cord specifically induces commissural axonal targeting (12– tion fates are unknown. Here, we show that a single transcription 14). However, the expression of Barhl1 and Barhl2 by both dI1i and factor (TF), BARHL2, regulates this choice in proprioceptive dI1 dI1c neurons provides a significant argument against their role in interneurons by selectively suppressing cardinal dI1contra features subtype divergence (6, 13, 14). Although targeted deletion of in dI1ipsi neurons, despite expression by both subtypes.
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