Transcription regulation of the differentiation of CSF-contacting neurons in the spinal cord

GUILLERMO LANUZA; ABEL CARCAGNO; DANIELA DI BELLA

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 2nd Falan congress 2016; 2016

In the last 20 years, we have reached a huge understanding of the genetic mechanisms that control neuronal specification during development in the vertebrate spinal cord. We have recently identified a late neurogenic event in the amniote spinal cord simultaneous to glial specification. CerebroSpinal Fluid contacting Neurons (CSF-cN) are located surrounding the central canal in contact with the CSF. Previously, we demonstrated that the transcription factor Ascl1 is expressed in the progenitors that give rise to CFS-cNs and controls their specification. By genetic tracing experiments, we found that transcription factors Gata3 and Gata2 are sequentially expressed in Ascl1 derived progenitors that will afterwards generate CSF-cNs. Despite Gata3 is expressed in all CSF-cNs, as shown by fate mapping experiments, only the most dorsal subpopulation requires Gata3 for their development. Moreover, by time-controlled conditional deletion, we found that Gata3 is specifically required for the onset of CSF-cN specification and is not necessary later on. Finally, Gata3 and Gata2 double knockouts completely lack CSF-cNs, suggesting that Gata2 compensates Gata3 loss in the most ventral population. In summary, we found that Gata transcription factors activity is essential for the generation of all CSF-cNs in the mouse spinal cord.