Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on December 28, 2007
Cerebral Cortex 2008 18(9):2117-2131; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm238
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COUP-TFI Coordinates Cortical Patterning, Neurogenesis, and Laminar Fate and Modulates MAPK/ERK, AKT, and ß-Catenin Signaling
1 Nina Ireland Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA, 2 Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine, Via P. Castellino 111, 80131 Napoli, Italy, 3 Institute of Medical Microbiology and Centre for Molecular Biology and Neuroscience, University of Oslo, The National Hospital, 0027 Oslo, Norway, 4 Department of Neurology, Programs in Neuroscience and Developmental Biology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA, 5 Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Address correspondence to Andrea Faedo, Nina Ireland Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA. Email: andrea.faedo{at}ucsf.edu.
A major unsolved question in cortical development is how proliferation, neurogenesis, regional growth, regional identity, and laminar fate specification are coordinated. Here we provide evidence, using loss-of-function and gain-of-function manipulations, that the COUP-TFI orphan nuclear receptor promotes ventral cortical fate, promotes cell cycle exit and neural differentiation, regulates the balance of early- and late-born neurons, and regulates the balanced production of different types of layer V cortical projection neurons. We suggest that COUP-TFI controls these processes by repressing Mapk/Erk, Akt, and β-catenin signaling.
Key Words: β-catenin COUP-TFI Mapk/Erk neurogenesis PI3K/Akt proliferation