Participation of Gli2 transcription factor in Xenopus laevis neural crest development

SANTIAGO CERRIZUELA; MARÍA BELÉN PALACIO; ANA L. HAEL; MANUEL J. AYBAR

Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Congreso; VI International Symposium of Developmental Biology, I Meeting Sociedade Brasileira de Biologia do Desenvolvimento; 2013

Sociedade Brasileira de Biologia do Desenvolvimento

The neural crest is a multipotent and migratory cell population that is unique to vertebrate embryos. These cells give rise to a diverse variety of cellular types and tissues such as cartilages, bone, connective tissue, endocrine and pigmentary cells, neurons and glia. This differentiation potential combined with a remarkable capacity of self-renewal support the fact that these cells have stem-cell properties. Indian Hedgehog signalling pathway plays a key role in Xenopus laevis neural crest formation, maintenance and migration. gli2 is an effector of this pathway, and acts as a transcriptional activator in different systems. In this work we established a detailed expression pattern of this gene at neurula stages. This gene is expressed in the lateral neural plate border, which subsequently forms the neural crest. It is also expressed in the anterior neural plate border, the prospective forebrain. Overexpression of gli2 mRNA in segmenting embryos produced an increase in the expression of neural crest specific markers. The specific knock-out of gli2 function using an antisense morpholino oligonucleotide produced a decrease in these specific gene markers foxd3 and snail2. Changes in the size of neural crest population were accompanied by compensatory changes in the specification of contiguous territories (neural plate and prospective epidermis). Our results suggests a key participation of gli2 in the genetic network that controls the neural crest cells specification