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Retinoid acid specifies neuronal identity through graded expression of Ascl1.

ABSTRACT: Cell diversity and organization in the neural tube depend on the integration of extrinsic signals acting along orthogonal axes. These are believed to specify distinct cellular identities by triggering all-or-none changes in expression of combinations of transcription factors. Under the influence of a common dorsoventral signal, sonic hedgehog, and distinct anterior-posterior (A-P) inductive signals, two topographically related progenitor pools that share a common transcriptional code produce serotonergic and V3 neurons in the hindbrain and spinal cord, respectively. These neurons have different physiological properties, functions, and connectivity. Serotonergic involvement in neuropsychiatric diseases has prompted greater characterization of their postmitotic repertoire of fate determinants, which include Gata2, Lmx1b, and Pet1, whereas V3 neurons express Sim1. How distinct serotonergic and V3 neuronal identities emerge from progenitors that share a common transcriptional code is not understood. Here, we show that changes in retinoid activity in these two progenitor pools determine their fates. Retinoids, via Notch signaling, control the expression level in progenitors of the transcription factor Ascl1, which selects serotonergic and V3 neuronal identities in a dose-dependent manner. Therefore, quantitative differences in the expression of a single component of a transcriptional code can select distinct cell fates.

SUBMITTER: Jacob J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3659286 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Retinoid acid specifies neuronal identity through graded expression of Ascl1.

Jacob John J Kong Jennifer J Moore Steven S Milton Christopher C Sasai Noriaki N Gonzalez-Quevedo Rosa R Terriente Javier J Imayoshi Itaru I Kageyama Ryoichiro R Wilkinson David G DG Novitch Bennett G BG Briscoe James J

Current biology : CB 20130214 5

Cell diversity and organization in the neural tube depend on the integration of extrinsic signals acting along orthogonal axes. These are believed to specify distinct cellular identities by triggering all-or-none changes in expression of combinations of transcription factors. Under the influence of a common dorsoventral signal, sonic hedgehog, and distinct anterior-posterior (A-P) inductive signals, two topographically related progenitor pools that share a common transcriptional code produce ser ...[more]

PMID: 23416099

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Project description:Erythropoietin (Epo)-induced Stat5 phosphorylation (p-Stat5) is essential for both basal erythropoiesis and for its acceleration during hypoxic stress. A key challenge lies in understanding how Stat5 signaling elicits distinct functions during basal and stress erythropoiesis. Here we asked whether these distinct functions might be specified by the dynamic behavior of the Stat5 signal. We used flow cytometry to analyze Stat5 phosphorylation dynamics in primary erythropoietic tissue in vivo and in vitro, identifying two signaling modalities. In later (basophilic) erythroblasts, Epo stimulation triggers a low intensity but decisive, binary (digital) p-Stat5 signal. In early erythroblasts the binary signal is superseded by a high-intensity graded (analog) p-Stat5 response. We elucidated the biological functions of binary and graded Stat5 signaling using the EpoR-HM mice, which express a "knocked-in" EpoR mutant lacking cytoplasmic phosphotyrosines. Strikingly, EpoR-HM mice are restricted to the binary signaling mode, which rescues these mice from fatal perinatal anemia by promoting binary survival decisions in erythroblasts. However, the absence of the graded p-Stat5 response in the EpoR-HM mice prevents them from accelerating red cell production in response to stress, including a failure to upregulate the transferrin receptor, which we show is a novel stress target. We found that Stat5 protein levels decline with erythroblast differentiation, governing the transition from high-intensity graded signaling in early erythroblasts to low-intensity binary signaling in later erythroblasts. Thus, using exogenous Stat5, we converted later erythroblasts into high-intensity graded signal transducers capable of eliciting a downstream stress response. Unlike the Stat5 protein, EpoR expression in erythroblasts does not limit the Stat5 signaling response, a non-Michaelian paradigm with therapeutic implications in myeloproliferative disease. Our findings show how the binary and graded modalities combine to generate high-fidelity Stat5 signaling over the entire basal and stress Epo range. They suggest that dynamic behavior may encode information during STAT signal transduction.

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Retinoid acid specifies neuronal identity through graded expression of Ascl1.

Publications

Retinoid acid specifies neuronal identity through graded expression of Ascl1.

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