The many faces of REST oversee epigenetic programming of neuronal genes.
Nervous system development relies on a complex signaling network to engineer the orderly transitions that lead to the acquisition of a neural cell fate. Progression from the non-neuronal pluripotent stem cell to a restricted neural lineage is characterized by distinct patterns of gene expression, particularly the restriction of neuronal gene expression to neurons. Concurrently, cells outside the nervous system acquire and maintain a non-neuronal fate that permanently excludes expression of neuronal genes. Studies of the transcriptional repressor REST, which regulates a large network of neuronal genes, provide a paradigm for elucidating the link between epigenetic mechanisms and neurogenesis. REST orchestrates a set of epigenetic modifications that are distinct between non-neuronal cells that give rise to neurons and those that are destined to remain as nervous system outsiders.
Ballas
Nurit
N
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
Mandel
Gail
G
D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000502:physiology; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D006801:Humans; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000502:physiology*; D000099229:RE1-Silencing Transcription Factor
D012097:Repressor Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; D000099229:RE1-Silencing Transcription Factor