Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Science. 2013 Jun 7;340(6137):1239-42. doi: 10.1126/science.1232806.
Studies of area patterning of the neocortex have focused on primary areas, concluding that the primary visual area, V1, is specified by transcription factors (TFs) expressed by progenitors. Mechanisms that determine higher-order visual areas (V(HO)) and distinguish them from V1 are unknown. We demonstrated a requirement for thalamocortical axon (TCA) input by genetically deleting geniculocortical TCAs and showed that they drive differentiation of patterned gene expression that distinguishes V1 and V(HO). Our findings suggest a multistage process for area patterning: TFs expressed by progenitors specify an occipital visual cortical field that differentiates into V1 and V(HO); this latter phase requires geniculocortical TCA input to the nascent V1 that determines genetic distinctions between V1 and V(HO) for all layers and ultimately determines their area-specific functional properties.
对新皮层区域模式的研究集中在初级区域，得出结论：初级视觉区域 V1 是由祖细胞表达的转录因子 (TFs) 决定的。确定高级视觉区域 (V(HO)) 并将其与 V1 区分开来的机制尚不清楚。我们通过遗传删除视丘脑皮质轴突 (TCA) 证明了它们的必要性，并表明它们驱动区分 V1 和 V(HO) 的模式基因表达的分化。我们的发现表明区域模式形成的一个多阶段过程：由祖细胞表达的 TF 决定了一个枕叶视觉皮质场，该皮质场分化为 V1 和 V(HO)；后一阶段需要视丘脑皮质 TCA 输入到新生的 V1，以确定 V1 和 V(HO) 之间的遗传差异，适用于所有层，并最终决定它们的区域特异性功能特性。
