2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Regulation of neuronal subtypes differentiation by bHLH transcriptional factors
| Project/Area Number |
15500243
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Nerve anatomy/Neuropathology
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| Research Institution | Fukushima Medical University |
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Principal Investigator |
HOMMA Shunsaku Fukushima Medical University, Dept. of Anatomy, Lecturer (20261795)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2004
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| Keywords | bHLH / neurogenin / cash / chick / electroporation / GDNF / GFR / spinal cord |
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| Research Abstract |
While we have studied the gene expression patterns of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor receptors (GFR_α) in the chick embryo at early developmental stages, we realized that one of three avian GFR_α species, GFR_α1, exhibited quite a similar distribution pattern of expressing cells along the dorso-ventral axis of the spinal cord to those of proneural basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcriptional factors including Neurogenin1 (Ngn1), Neurogenin2 (Ngn2), and NeuroM. This led us to test the roles of these bHLH transcriptional factors in the regulation of the GFR_α1 expression. To address this possibility, we overexpressed Ngn1, Ngn2, and NeuroM in neural tubes of chick embryos using in ovo electroporation. We also tested another bHLH factor cash1, which has cross-inhibitory activity to Ngn2. Overexpression of these bHLH proteins spatially and quantitatively increased GFR_α1-expressing cells without affecting the expression patterns of the other two GFR_α1 (e.g. GFR_α2 and 4). The overexpression of bHLH domains of NeuroM and Cash1 fused to the repressor domain of the engrailed homeobox gene reduced the expression of GFR_α1. These results show that bHLH proteins are involved in the regulation of a partial repertoire of neuronal characteristics such as neurotrophic receptor expression (GFR_α) during the neurogenesis in the spinal cord.
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Research Products
(2 results)
