VAB-8/KIF26, LIN-17/Frizzled, and EFN-4/Ephrin control distinct stages of posterior neuroblast migration downstream of the MAB-5/Hox transcription factor in Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: Hox transcription factors are involved in neuronal and neural crest development and differentiation, including migration, but the genetic programs employed by Hox genes to regulate terminal differentiation remain to be defined. In C. elegans, the Antennapedia-like Hox factor MAB-5 is both necessary and sufficient to induce posterior migration of the Q lineage neuroblasts and neurons downstream of canonical Wnt signaling. Q lineage fluorescence-activated cell sorting and RNA seq in mab-5 loss-of-function and gain-of-function backgrounds revealed genes with expression in the Q lineage dependent upon MAB-5. Here, the roles of three mab-5-regulated genes in QL lineage posterior migration are delineated, vab-8/KIF26, lin-17/Fz, and efn-4/Ephrin. Live, time-lapse imaging of QL.a and QL.ap poster

SUBMITTER: Jain VD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12533845 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature