Postmitotic Diversification of Olfactory Neuron Types is Mediated by Differential Activities of the HMG-box Transcription Factor SOX-2

Overview

Journal EMBO J

Specialties Biotechnology
Molecular Biology

Date 2015 Sep 6

PMID 26341465

Citations 22

Authors

Amel Alqadah

Yi-Wen Hsieh

Berta Vidal

Chieh Chang

Oliver Hobert

Chiou-Fen Chuang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Diversification of neuron classes is essential for functions of the olfactory system, but the underlying mechanisms that generate individual olfactory neuron types are only beginning to be understood. Here we describe a role of the highly conserved HMG-box transcription factor SOX-2 in postmitotic specification and alternative differentiation of the Caenorhabditis elegans AWC and AWB olfactory neurons. We show that SOX-2 partners with different transcription factors to diversify postmitotic olfactory cell types. SOX-2 functions cooperatively with the OTX/OTD transcription factor CEH-36 to specify an AWC "ground state," and functions with the LIM homeodomain factor LIM-4 to suppress this ground state and drive an AWB identity instead. Our findings provide novel insights into combinatorial codes that drive terminal differentiation programs in the nervous system and reveal a biological function of the deeply conserved Sox2 protein that goes beyond its well-known role in stem cell biology.

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