| First Author | Zou M | Year | 2015 |
| Journal | Dev Dyn | Volume | 244 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 86-97 |
| PubMed ID | 25179941 | Mgi Jnum | J:217063 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5613027 | Doi | 10.1002/dvdy.24185 |
| Citation | Zou M, et al. (2015) Selective neuronal lineages derived from Dll4-expressing progenitors/precursors in the retina and spinal cord. Dev Dyn 244(1):86-97 |
| abstractText | BACKGROUND: During retinal and spinal cord neurogenesis, Notch signaling plays crucial roles in regulating proliferation and differentiation of progenitor cells. One of the Notch ligands, Delta-like 4 (Dll4), has been shown to be expressed in subsets of retinal and spinal cord progenitors/precursors and involved in neuronal subtype specification. However, it remains to be determined whether Dll4 expression has any progenitor/precursor-specificity contributing to its functional specificity during neural development. RESULTS: We generated a Dll4-Cre BAC transgenic mouse line that drives Cre recombinase expression mimicking that of the endogenous Dll4 in the developing retina and spinal cord. By fate-mapping analysis, we found that Dll4-expressing progenitors/precursors give rise to essentially all cone, amacrine and horizontal cells, a large portion of rod and ganglion cells, but only few bipolar and Muller cells. In the spinal cord, Dll4-expressing progenitors/precursors generate almost all V2a and V2c cells while producing only a fraction of the cells for other interneuron and motor neuron subtypes along the dorsoventral axis. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that selective expression of Dll4 in progenitors/precursors contributes to its functional specificity in neuronal specification and that the Dll4-Cre line is a valuable tool for gene manipulation to study Notch signaling. Developmental Dynamics 244:86-97, 2015. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
