SCIENCE@home

The Drosophila Sp8 transcription factor Buttonhead prevents premature differentiation of intermediate neural progenitors

Yonggang Xie,Xiaosu Li,Xian Zhang,Shaolin Mei,Hongyu Li,A. Urso,Sijun Zhu

Published 2014 in eLife

ABSTRACT

Intermediate neural progenitor cells (INPs) need to avoid differentiation and cell cycle exit while maintaining restricted developmental potential, but mechanisms preventing differentiation and cell cycle exit of INPs are not well understood. In this study, we report that the Drosophila homolog of mammalian Sp8 transcription factor Buttonhead (Btd) prevents premature differentiation and cell cycle exit of INPs in Drosophila larval type II neuroblast (NB) lineages. We show that the loss of Btd leads to elimination of mature INPs due to premature differentiation of INPs into terminally dividing ganglion mother cells. We provide evidence to demonstrate that Btd prevents the premature differentiation by suppressing the expression of the homeodomain protein Prospero in immature INPs. We further show that Btd functions cooperatively with the Ets transcription factor Pointed P1 to promote the generation of INPs. Thus, our work reveals a critical mechanism that prevents premature differentiation and cell cycle exit of Drosophila INPs. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03596.001

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-55 of 55 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY

Showing 1-26 of 26 citing papers · Page 1 of 1