Identification and functional characterization of new regulators of sensory neurogenesis in Xenopus laevis
Hutlet, Bertrand
Hutlet, Bertrand
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Identifiers
https://hdl.handle.net/10379/18551
https://doi.org/10.13025/29345
https://doi.org/10.13025/29345
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Publication Date
2025-02-04
Type
doctoral thesis
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Abstract
Whether to keep dividing or to differentiate is one of the key decisions cells have to make during animal development and adult life. However, very little is currently known about how this important balancing act is regulated. This study addresses this question focusing on cranial sensory cells and the sensory neurons that innervate them.
In previous studies, a protein complex of the transcription factor Six1 and its cofactor Eya1 has been identified as a key regulator of these sensory cells and neurons and several studies suggested that this protein complex is required for both maintenance of neuronal/sensory progenitors and neuronal or sensory differentiation. This suggests that this protein complex plays an important role in regulating the balance between proliferating progenitors and differentiating cells. While the precise mechanism is obscure, interactions with different cofactors in a context-dependent manner probably play a decisive role.
Based on a yeast two-hybrid protein interaction screen, the present study identified multiple putative protein interaction partners of Eya1. The developmental expression profiles of genes coding for five candidate Eya1 interactants (Garre1, Msh6, Pias4, Smarce1 and Zmym3) in Xenopus laevis are consistent with roles in the development of cranial sensory neurons, possibly in cooperation and/or interaction with Eya1. Even though no direct interaction between Eya1 and these candidates could be confirmed, gain and loss of function experiments performed in this study show that Pias4 and Smarce1 have important functions in sensory neurogenesis, with both proteins being required for the differentiation of sensory neurons and Pias4 potentially playing an additional role in neuronal progenitor formation.
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Publisher
University of Galway
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International