Genetic evidence that Nkx2.2 acts primarily downstream of Neurog3 in pancreatic endocrine lineage development.

ABSTRACT: Many pancreatic transcription factors that are essential for islet cell differentiation have been well characterized; however, because they are often expressed in several different cell populations, their functional hierarchy remains unclear. To parse out the spatiotemporal regulation of islet cell differentiation, we used a Neurog3-Cre allele to ablate Nkx2.2, one of the earliest and most broadly expressed islet transcription factors, specifically in the Neurog3⁺ endocrine progenitor lineage (Nkx2.2^△endo). Remarkably, many essential components of the β cell transcriptional network that were down-regulated in the Nkx2.2^KO mice, were maintained in the Nkx2.2^△endo mice - yet the Nkx2.2^△endo mice

SUBMITTER: Churchill AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5224921 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature