Coupling of Cell Migration with Neurogenesis by Proneural BHLH Factors

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2006 Jan 25

PMID 16432194

Citations 96

Authors

Weihong Ge

Fei He

Kevin J Kim

Bruno Blanchi

Volkan Coskun

Laurent Nguyen

Xiangbing Wu

Jing Zhao

Julian Ik-Tsen Heng

Keri Martinowich

Jifang Tao

Hao Wu

Diogo Castro

Magdi M Sobeih

Gabriel Corfas

Joseph G Gleeson

Michael E Greenberg

Francois Guillemot

Yi E Sun

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

After cell birth, almost all neurons in the mammalian central nervous system migrate. It is unclear whether and how cell migration is coupled with neurogenesis. Here we report that proneural basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors not only initiate neuronal differentiation but also potentiate cell migration. Mechanistically, proneural bHLH factors regulate the expression of genes critically involved in migration, including down-regulation of RhoA small GTPase and up-regulation of doublecortin and p35, which, in turn, modulate the actin and microtubule cytoskeleton assembly and enable newly generated neurons to migrate. In addition, we report that several DNA-binding-deficient proneural genes that fail to initiate neuronal differentiation still activate migration, whereas a different mutation of a proneural gene that causes a failure in initiating cell migration still leads to robust neuronal differentiation. Collectively, these data suggest that transcription programs for neurogenesis and migration are regulated by bHLH factors through partially distinct mechanisms.

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