Pea3 transcription factors, Etv4 and Etv5, are key mediators of hippocampal dendrite growth during development

FONTANET, P; ALSINA, F; IRALA, D; BONAFINA, A; PARATCHA, G; LEDDA, F

New Port

Congreso; Gordon Research Conferences; 2015

The development of a complex, type specific dendrite morphology plays a major role in governing the functional properties of neurons and neural circuits and many neurodevelopmental disorders are due to structural abnormalities of dendrites and their connections.In this study, we present evidence indicating that two members of the Pea3 family of transcriptional factors, Etv4 and Etv5, are expressed by hippocampal cells at early postnatal stages and show that these two transcriptional factors plays a major role in hippocampal dendrite growth. We show that downregulation of Etv4 and Etv5 in cultured hippocampal neurons, resulted in reduced complexity of dendritic arborization and a prominent reduction of spine density. In agreement with these results, overexpression of Etv4 and Etv5 resulted in an enhanced dendritic growth and spine development. Moreover, our experimental data support the idea that BDNF induce transcriptional programs, which involve Etv4 and Etv5 and mediates the BDNF-dependent dendrite outgrowth and spine formation of hippocampal pyramidal cells. These findings show for the first time a key role for endogenous Etv4 and Etv5 in crucial aspects of hippocampal connectivity.