Abstract
Neuronal identities are specified by the combinatorial functions of activators and repressors of gene expression. Members of the well-conserved Olf/EBF (O/E) transcription factor family have been shown to play important roles in neuronal and non-neuronal development and differentiation. O/E proteins are highly expressed in the olfactory epithelium, and O/E binding sites have been identified upstream of olfactory genes. However, the roles of O/E proteins in sensory neuron development are unclear. Here we show that the O/E protein UNC-3 is required for subtype specification of the ASI chemosensory neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans. UNC-3 promotes an ASI identity by directly repressing the expression of alternate neuronal programs and by activating expression of ASI-specific genes including the daf-7 TGF-β gene. Our results indicate that UNC-3 is a critical component of the transcription factor code that integrates cell-intrinsic developmental programs with external signals to specify sensory neuronal identity and suggest models for O/E protein functions in other systems.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 136-148 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Developmental Biology |
| Volume | 286 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Oct 2005 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Mayumi Shibuya, Tali Melkman, and Caron Gauthier for assistance with experiments, the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center for strains, Brinda Prasad and Randall Reed for communication of results prior to publication, and the Sengupta lab for discussion. We are grateful to Chris Li, Brinda Prasad, Randall Reed, Makato Koga, and Oliver Hobert for reagents and Oliver Hobert, Chris Li, Brinda Prasad, Randall Reed, and the Sengupta lab for critical comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the NIH (RO1 GM56223—P.S.; T32 NS07292—M.E.C.).
Keywords
- ASI
- Caenorhabditis elegans
- Chemosensory neuron
- Olf/EBF
- unc-3