title: Ontogenetic establishment of order-specific nuclear organization in the mammalian thalamus.
abstract: The thalamus connects the cortex with other brain regions and supports sensory perception, movement, and cognitive function via numerous distinct nuclei. However, the mechanisms underlying the development and organization of diverse thalamic nuclei remain largely unknown. Here we report an intricate ontogenetic logic of mouse thalamic structures. Individual radial glial progenitors in the developing thalamus actively divide and produce a cohort of neuronal progeny that shows striking spatial configuration and nuclear occupation related to functionality. Whereas the anterior clonal cluster displays relatively more tangential dispersion and contributes predominantly to nuclei with cognitive functions, the medial ventral posterior clonal cluster forms prominent radial arrays and contributes mostly to nuclei with sensory- or motor-related activities. Moreover, the first-order and higher-order sensory and motor nuclei across different modalities are largely segregated clonally. Notably, sonic hedgehog signaling activity influences clonal spatial distribution. Our study reveals lineage relationship to be a critical regulator of nonlaminated thalamus development and organization.
authors.affiliation: Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA.|Neuroscience Graduate Program, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA.|Physiology, Biophysics and Systems Biology Graduate Program, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Anjin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Xianyu
authors.affiliation: College of Software, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.|Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Zhizhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Vollum Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Haining
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Vollum Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Tianyi
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3532-8319
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA.|Neuroscience Graduate Program, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.|Physiology, Biophysics and Systems Biology Graduate Program, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Song-Hai
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Shi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D002460:Cell Line / Q000502:physiology*; D053823:Hedgehog Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology; D013788:Thalamus / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D053823:Hedgehog Proteins; C465570:Shh protein, mouse