Gbx2 is essential for maintaining thalamic neuron identity and repressing habenular characters in the developing thalamus.

ABSTRACT: The thalamus and habenula, two important nodes of the forebrain circuitry, are derived from a single developmental compartment, called prosomere 2, in the diencephalon. Habenular and thalamic neurons display distinct molecular identity, neurochemistry, and connectivity. Furthermore, their progenitors exhibit distinctive neurogenic patterns with a marked delay in the onset of neurogenesis in the thalamus. However, the progenitors in prosomere 2 express many common developmental regulators and the mechanism underlying the specification and differentiation of these two populations of neurons remains unknown. Gbx2, coding for a homeodomain transcription factor, is initially expressed in thalamic neuronal precursors that have just exited the cell cycle, and its expression is maintained in many

SUBMITTER: Mallika C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4641819 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature