Skip to main content
Advertisement

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About Development
    • About the Node
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contacts
    • Subscriptions
    • Feedback
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Development
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

supporting biologistsinspiring biology

Development

  • Log in
Advanced search

RSS  Twitter  Facebook  YouTube 

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About Development
    • About the Node
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contacts
    • Subscriptions
    • Feedback
RESEARCH ARTICLE
C. elegans SoxB genes are dispensable for embryonic neurogenesis but required for terminal differentiation of specific neuron types
Berta Vidal, Anthony Santella, Esther Serrano-Saiz, Zhirong Bao, Chiou-Fen Chuang, Oliver Hobert
Development 2015 142: 2464-2477; doi: 10.1242/dev.125740
Berta Vidal
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: bvi2001@columbia.edu or38@columbia.edu
Anthony Santella
2Developmental Biology Program, Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, NY 10065, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Esther Serrano-Saiz
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Zhirong Bao
2Developmental Biology Program, Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, NY 10065, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Chiou-Fen Chuang
3Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Oliver Hobert
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: bvi2001@columbia.edu or38@columbia.edu
  • Article
  • Figures & tables
  • Supp info
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF + SI
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Neurogenesis involves deeply conserved patterning molecules, such as the proneural basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors. Sox proteins and specifically members of the SoxB and SoxC groups are another class of conserved transcription factors with an important role in neuronal fate commitment and differentiation in various species. In this study, we examine the expression of all five Sox genes of the nematode C. elegans and analyze the effect of null mutant alleles of all members of the SoxB and SoxC groups on nervous system development. Surprisingly, we find that, unlike in other systems, neither of the two C. elegans SoxB genes sox-2 (SoxB1) and sox-3 (SoxB2), nor the sole C. elegans SoxC gene sem-2, is broadly expressed throughout the embryonic or adult nervous system and that all three genes are mostly dispensable for embryonic neurogenesis. Instead, sox-2 is required to maintain the developmental potential of blast cells that are generated in the embryo but divide only postembryonically to give rise to differentiated neuronal cell types. Moreover, sox-2 and sox-3 have selective roles in the terminal differentiation of specific neuronal cell types. Our findings suggest that the common themes of SoxB gene function across phylogeny lie in specifying developmental potential and, later on, in selectively controlling terminal differentiation programs of specific neuron types, but not in broadly controlling neurogenesis.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests

    The authors declare no competing or financial interests.

  • Funding

    This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health [R01NS039996-05 and R01NS050266-03 to O.H.; R01GM098026 to C.-F.C.]. O.H. is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. B.V. was supported by a Beatriu de Pinós post-doctoral fellowship (BP-DGR). Deposited in PMC for release after 6 months.

  • Author contributions

    B.V. and O.H. designed the study and jointly wrote the paper. Further inputs into the design of the experiments were provided by C.-F.C. B.V. performed all experiments, except the following: eat-4 analysis in vab-3 mutants and mutation/analysis of the PAX-6 binding site was performed by E.S.-S.; the StarryNite-based lineaging was performed by A.S. under supervision of Z.B.

  • Supplementary material

    Supplementary material available online at http://dev.biologists.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1242/dev.125740/-/DC1

  • Received April 26, 2015.
  • Accepted May 28, 2015.
View Full Text
Previous ArticleNext Article
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

This Issue

Keywords

  • Caenorhabditis elegans
  • Sox genes
  • Neurogenesis

 Download PDF

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Development.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
C. elegans SoxB genes are dispensable for embryonic neurogenesis but required for terminal differentiation of specific neuron types
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Development
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Development web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
RESEARCH ARTICLE
C. elegans SoxB genes are dispensable for embryonic neurogenesis but required for terminal differentiation of specific neuron types
Berta Vidal, Anthony Santella, Esther Serrano-Saiz, Zhirong Bao, Chiou-Fen Chuang, Oliver Hobert
Development 2015 142: 2464-2477; doi: 10.1242/dev.125740
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
RESEARCH ARTICLE
C. elegans SoxB genes are dispensable for embryonic neurogenesis but required for terminal differentiation of specific neuron types
Berta Vidal, Anthony Santella, Esther Serrano-Saiz, Zhirong Bao, Chiou-Fen Chuang, Oliver Hobert
Development 2015 142: 2464-2477; doi: 10.1242/dev.125740

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Alerts

Please log in to add an alert for this article.

Sign in to email alerts with your email address

Article navigation

  • Top
  • Article
    • Abstract
    • INTRODUCTION
    • RESULTS
    • DISCUSSION
    • MATERIALS AND METHODS
    • Acknowledgements
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & tables
  • Supp info
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF + SI
  • PDF

Related articles

Cited by...

More in this TOC section

  • Ceramides mediate positional signals in Arabidopsis thaliana protoderm differentiation
  • Zebrafish model for spondylo-megaepiphyseal-metaphyseal dysplasia reveals post-embryonic roles of Nkx3.2 in the skeleton
  • Ror2-mediated non-canonical Wnt signaling regulates Cdc42 and cell proliferation during tooth root development
Show more RESEARCH ARTICLE

Similar articles

Other journals from The Company of Biologists

Journal of Cell Science

Journal of Experimental Biology

Disease Models & Mechanisms

Biology Open

Advertisement

Kathryn Virginia Anderson (1952-2020)

Developmental geneticist Kathryn Anderson passed away at home on 30 November 2020. Tamara Caspary, a former postdoc and friend, remembers Kathryn and her remarkable contribution to developmental biology.


Zooming into 2021

In a new Editorial, Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown reflect on the triumphs and tribulations of the last 12 months, and look towards a hopefully calmer and more predictable year.


Read & Publish participation extends worldwide

Over 60 institutions in 12 countries are now participating in our Read & Publish initiative. Here, James Briscoe explains what this means for his institution, The Francis Crick Institute. Find out more and view our full list of participating institutions.


Upcoming special issues

Imaging Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration
Submission deadline: 30 March 2021
Publication: mid-2021

The Immune System in Development and Regeneration
Guest editors: Florent Ginhoux and Paul Martin
Submission deadline: 1 September 2021
Publication: Spring 2022

Both special issues welcome Review articles as well as Research articles, and will be widely promoted online and at key global conferences.


Development presents...

Our successful webinar series continues into 2021, with early-career researchers presenting their papers and a chance to virtually network with the developmental biology community afterwards. Sign up to join our next session:

10 February
Time: 13:00 (GMT)
Chaired by: preLights

Articles

  • Accepted manuscripts
  • Issue in progress
  • Latest complete issue
  • Issue archive
  • Archive by article type
  • Special issues
  • Subject collections
  • Sign up for alerts

About us

  • About Development
  • About the Node
  • Editors and board
  • Editor biographies
  • Travelling Fellowships
  • Grants and funding
  • Journal Meetings
  • Workshops
  • The Company of Biologists

For authors

  • Submit a manuscript
  • Aims and scope
  • Presubmission enquiries
  • Article types
  • Manuscript preparation
  • Cover suggestions
  • Editorial process
  • Promoting your paper
  • Open Access
  • Biology Open transfer

Journal info

  • Journal policies
  • Rights and permissions
  • Media policies
  • Reviewer guide
  • Sign up for alerts

Contact

  • Contact Development
  • Subscriptions
  • Advertising
  • Feedback

 Twitter   YouTube   LinkedIn

© 2021   The Company of Biologists Ltd   Registered Charity 277992