PHA-4/FoxA controls the function of pharyngeal and extrapharyngeal enteric neurons of <i>C. elegans</i>.

ABSTRACT: FoxA transcription factors pattern gut tissue across animal phylogeny. Beyond their early patterning function, little is known about whether they control the terminal differentiation and/or function of the fully mature enteric nervous system, the intrinsic nervous system of the gut. We show here that the expression and function of the sole C. elegans FoxA homolog, PHA-4, reaches beyond its previously described pioneer factor roles in patterning the foregut. Through the engineering of neuron-specific cis-regulatory alleles, Cre-mediated cell-specific knockouts and degron-mediated, temporally controlled PHA-4/FoxA removal in postmitotic neurons, we found that PHA-4/FoxA is required not only to initiate the terminal differentiation program of foregut-associated enteric neurons,

SUBMITTER: Walker Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12642682 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature