Articles

  • the Korean Society for Brain and Neural Sciences

Article

Original Article

Exp Neurobiol 2010; 19(2): 75-82

Published online September 30, 2010

https://doi.org/10.5607/en.2010.19.2.75

© The Korean Society for Brain and Neural Sciences

A Winged-Helix Transcription Factor Foxg1 Induces Expression of Mss4 Gene in Rat Hippocampal Progenitor Cells

Ju-Suk Nam, Haijie Yang, Nam-Ho Kim, Yuanjie Sun, Byung-Soo Choi and Sung-Oh Huh*

Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Natural Medicine, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chunchon 200-702, Korea

Correspondence to: *To whom correspondence should be addressed.
TEL: 82-33-248-2615, FAX: 82-33-248-2612
e-mail: s0huh@hallym.ac.kr

Abstract

Foxg1 (previously named BF1) is a winged-helix transcription factor with restricted expression pattern in the telencephalic neuroepithelium of the neural tube and in the anterior half of the developing optic vesicle. Previous studies have shown that the targeted disruption of the Foxg1 gene leads to hypoplasia of the cerebral hemispheres with severe defect in the structures of the ventral telencephalon. To further investigate the molecular mechanisms by which Foxg1 plays essential roles during brain development, we have adopted a strategy to isolate genes whose expression changes immediately after introduction of Foxg1 in cultured neural precursor cell line, HiB5. Here, we report that seventeen genes were isolated by ordered differential displays that are up-regulated by over-expression of Foxg1, in cultured neuronal precursor cells. By nucleotide sequence comparison to known genes in the GeneBank database, we find that nine of these clones represent novel genes whose DNA sequences have not been reported. The results suggest that these genes are closely related to developmental regulation of Foxg1.

Keywords: Foxg1, telencephalon development, Mss4, ordered-differential display