Identification of the neural crest-specific enhancer of Seraf gene in avian peripheral nervous system development.
In vertebrate embryos, trunk neural crest cells give rise to Schwann cells, along with other derivatives. In this study, to elucidate the molecular mechanisms for the Schwann cell specification, we aimed to identify enhancer elements responsible for the expression of the Seraf gene, the earliest marker for the Schwann cell precursors in the avian embryos. We first compared the genomic structure around the Seraf locus in various vertebrates, and found that, while mammals do not have a Seraf homolog, teleost fish species have it. However, the intergenic sequences around the Seraf locus are not conserved between zebrafish and chicken, consistent with the fact that fish Seraf expression is not Schwann cell precursor-specific. We thus compared the intergenic sequences around the Seraf locus among avian species, and identified a potential enhancer containing a cluster of Sox10-binding sites. Accordingly, the identified enhancer is activated in a neural crest-specific manner in transfected quail embryos. We also found that Sox10 activated the enhancer in cultured cells. Thus, our results revealed a new role of Sox10 in the earliest phase of the Schwann cell fate specification.
Department of Developmental Neuroscience, Center for Translational and Advanced Animal Research, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8575, Japan. Electronic address: tksuzuki@iwate-med.ac.jp.
Takashi
T
Suzuki
Department of Developmental Neuroscience, Center for Translational and Advanced Animal Research, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8575, Japan. Electronic address: osumi@med.tohoku.ac.jp.
Noriko
N
Osumi
Department of Developmental Neuroscience, Center for Translational and Advanced Animal Research, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8575, Japan. Electronic address: wakasama@med.tohoku.ac.jp.
Yoshio
Y
Wakamatsu
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001717:Birds / Q000235:genetics*; D004247:DNA; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009432:Neural Crest / Q000378:metabolism*; D017933:Peripheral Nervous System / Q000378:metabolism*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
D004247:DNA
Enhancer; Neural crest; Neuregulin; Schwann cell; Seraf; Sox10