A Zinc Finger Transcription Factor, , Required for the Specification of a Dopamine Neuron-Producing Lineage.

Invertebrate and vertebrate nervous systems generate different types of dopaminergic neurons in distinct parts of the brain. We have taken a genetic approach to understand how the four functionally related, but lineally unrelated, classes of dopaminergic neurons of the nematode , located in distinct parts of its nervous system, are specified. We have identified several genes involved in the generation of a specific dopaminergic neuron type that is generated from the so-called postdeirid lineage, called PDE. Apart from classic proneural genes and components of the mediator complex, we identified a novel, previously uncharacterized zinc finger transcription factor, Loss of has distinct effects in different dopamine neuron-producing neuronal lineages. In the postdeirid lineage, is required for proper cell division patterns and the proper distribution of a critical cell fate determinant, the POP-1/TCF-like transcription factor.