title: Roles of Hoxb5 in the development of vagal and trunk neural crest cells.
abstract: Neural crest cells (NC) are a group of multipotent stem cells uniquely present in vertebrates. They are destined to form various organs according to their anterior-posterior (A-P) levels of origin in the neural tube (NT). They develop into a wide spectrum of cell lineages under the influence of signaling cascades, neural plate border genes and NC specifier genes. Although this complex gene regulatory network (GRN) specifies the fate of NC and the combinatory action of Hox genes executed at the time of NC induction governs the patterning of NC for the formation of specific structures along the A-P axis, not much information on how GRN and Hox genes directly interact and orchestrate is available. This review summarizes recent findings on the multiple roles of Hoxb5 on the survival and cell lineage differentiation of vagal and trunk NC cells during early development, by direct transcriptional regulation of NC specifier genes (Sox9 and Foxd3) of the GRN. We will also review findings on the transcriptional regulation of Ret by Hoxb5 in the population of the vagal NC that are committed to the enteric neuron and glia lineages. Functional redundancy between Hox proteins (Hoxa5 and Hoxc5) from the same paralogue group as Hoxb5, and the cooperative effects of Hox cofactors, collaborators and transcription factors in the Hoxb5 transcriptional regulation of target genes will also be discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Mandy K M
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Kam
authors.forename: Vincent C H
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Lui
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000502:physiology; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks / Q000502:physiology*; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D009432:Neural Crest / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology*; D055758:SOX9 Transcription Factor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000502:physiology*; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology*
chemical_list: C503514:FOXD3 protein, human; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; C489213:HOXA5 protein, human; C489126:HOXB5 protein, human; C118987:HOXC5 protein, human; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D055758:SOX9 Transcription Factor; C527932:SOX9 protein, human
keywords: Hox; Hoxb5; neural crest cells; patterning; survival