title: The Ets protein Pointed prevents both premature differentiation and dedifferentiation of Drosophila intermediate neural progenitors.
abstract: Intermediate neural progenitors (INPs) need to avoid both dedifferentiation and differentiation during neurogenesis, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. In Drosophila, the Ets protein Pointed P1 (PntP1) is required to generate INPs from type II neuroblasts. Here, we investigated how PntP1 promotes INP generation. By generating pntP1-specific mutants and using RNAi knockdown, we show that the loss of PntP1 leads to both an increase in type II neuroblast number and the elimination of INPs. The elimination of INPs results from the premature differentiation of INPs due to ectopic Prospero expression in newly generated immature INPs (imINPs), whereas the increase in type II neuroblasts results from the dedifferentiation of imINPs due to loss of Earmuff at later stages of imINP development. Furthermore, reducing Buttonhead enhances the loss of INPs in pntP1 mutants, suggesting that PntP1 and Buttonhead act cooperatively to prevent premature INP differentiation. Our results demonstrate that PntP1 prevents both the premature differentiation and the dedifferentiation of INPs by regulating the expression of distinct target genes at different stages of imINP development.
authors: Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
authors: Yonggang
authors: Y
authors: Xie
authors: Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
authors: Xiaosu
authors: X
authors: Li
authors: Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
authors: Xiaobing
authors: X
authors: Deng
authors: Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
authors: Yanjun
authors: Y
authors: Hou
authors: Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
authors: Krysten
authors: K
authors: O'Hara
authors: Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
authors: Andreacarola
authors: A
authors: Urso
authors: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Peng
authors: Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
authors: Li
authors: L
authors: Chen
authors: Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA zhus@upstate.edu.
authors: Sijun
authors: 0000-0003-2707-2031
authors: S
authors: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004330:Drosophila; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D058953:Neural Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C083884:pnt protein, Drosophila
keywords: Buttonhead; Drosophila; Earmuff; Intermediate neural progenitor; Neuroblast; Pointed