Lee K J, Mendelsohn M, Jessell T M
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032 USA.
Genes Dev. 1998 Nov 1;12(21):3394-407. doi: 10.1101/gad.12.21.3394.
Inductive factors are known to direct the regional differentiation of the vertebrate central nervous system (CNS) but their role in the specification of individual neuronal cell types is less clear. We have examined the function of GDF7, a BMP family member expressed selectively by roof plate cells, in the generation of neuronal cell types in the dorsal spinal cord. We find that GDF7 can promote the differentiation in vitro of two dorsal sensory interneuron classes, D1A and D1B neurons. In Gdf7-null mutant embryos, the generation of D1A neurons is eliminated but D1B neurons and other identified dorsal interneurons are unaffected. These findings show that GDF7 is an inductive signal from the roof plate required for the specification of neuronal identity in the dorsal spinal cord and that GDF7 and other BMP family members expressed by the roof plate have non-redundant functions in vivo. More generally, these results suggest that BMP signaling may have a prominent role in the assignment of neuronal identity within the mammalian CNS.
已知诱导因子可指导脊椎动物中枢神经系统（CNS）的区域分化，但其在单个神经元细胞类型特化中的作用尚不清楚。我们研究了GDF7（一种由顶板细胞选择性表达的BMP家族成员）在脊髓背侧神经元细胞类型生成中的功能。我们发现GDF7可促进两种背侧感觉中间神经元类型（D1A和D1B神经元）在体外的分化。在Gdf7基因敲除突变体胚胎中，D1A神经元的生成被消除，但D1B神经元和其他已确定的背侧中间神经元未受影响。这些发现表明，GDF7是脊髓背侧神经元身份特化所需的来自顶板的诱导信号，并且顶板表达的GDF7和其他BMP家族成员在体内具有非冗余功能。更普遍地说，这些结果表明BMP信号传导可能在哺乳动物中枢神经系统内神经元身份的分配中起重要作用。
