title: Genetic ablation of Rest leads to in vitro-specific derepression of neuronal genes during neurogenesis.
abstract: Rest (RE1-silencing transcription factor, also called Nrsf) is involved in the maintenance of the undifferentiated state of neuronal stem/progenitor cells in vitro by preventing precocious expression of neuronal genes. However, the function of Rest during neurogenesis in vivo remains to be elucidated because of the early embryonic lethal phenotype of conventional Rest knockout mice. In the present study, we have generated Rest conditional knockout mice, which allow the effect of genetic ablation of Rest during embryonic neurogenesis to be examined in vivo. We show that Rest plays a role in suppressing the expression of neuronal genes in cultured neuronal cells in vitro, as well as in non-neuronal cells outside of the central nervous system, but that it is dispensable for embryonic neurogenesis in vivo. Our findings highlight the significance of extrinsic signals for the proper intrinsic regulation of neuronal gene expression levels in the specification of cell fate during embryonic neurogenesis in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Department of Tissue and Organ Development, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu, Japan.
authors.forename: Hitomi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aoki
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hara
authors.forename: Takumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Era
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kunisada
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamada
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D017353:Gene Deletion; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D000099229:RE1-Silencing Transcription Factor
chemical_list: D012097:Repressor Proteins; D000099229:RE1-Silencing Transcription Factor