RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A terminal selector prevents a Hox transcriptional switch to safeguard motor neuron identity throughout life
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 643320
DO 10.1101/643320
A1 Weidong Feng
A1 Yinan Li
A1 Pauline Dao
A1 Jihad Aburas
A1 Priota Islam
A1 Benayahu Elbaz
A1 Anna Kolarzyk
A1 André E.X. Brown
A1 Paschalis Kratsios
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/05/20/643320.abstract
AB Nervous system function critically relies on continuous expression of neuron type-specific terminal identity features, such as neurotransmitter receptors, ion channels and neuropeptides. How individual neuron types select such features during development and maintain them throughout life is poorly understood. Here, we report an unconventional mechanism that enables cholinergic motor neurons (MNs) in the C. elegans ventral nerve cord to select and maintain their distinct terminal identity features. The conserved terminal selector UNC-3 (Collier/Ebf) UNC-3 is continuously required not only to promote cholinergic MN features, but also to prevent expression of “unwanted” terminal identity features normally reserved for other neuron types. Mechanistically, this dual function is achieved by the ability of UNC-3 to prevent a switch in the transcriptional targets of the Hox protein LIN-39 (Scr/Dfd/Hox4-5). The strategy of a terminal selector preventing a Hox transcriptional switch may constitute a general principle for safeguarding neuronal terminal identity features throughout life.