TY  - GEN
T1  - A missense mutation separates distinct functions of the Zic-family transcription factor REF-2
AU  - Hart, Michael P
AU  - Hobert, Oliver
DO  - 10.17912/micropub.biology.000232
UR  - http://beta.micropublication.org/journals/biology/micropub-biology-000232/
AB  - To better understand motor neuron specification, we have conducted an EMS-induced mutant screen in which we sought to identify mutants with defects in the expression of an unc-53::gfp marker (hdIs1 transgene), which is normally expressed in the cholinergic DA and AS motor neurons (Wacker et al., 2003). As previously reported, this screen identified the zinc finger transcription factor bnc-1 (Kerk et al., 2017). Another allele identified from this screen is ot762. Unlike bnc-1 mutant alleles, ot762 mutant animals are Unc and Egl. ot762 mutants show a decrease in the number of unc-53::gfp expressing neurons in the L4, but not L1 stage, indicating a loss of unc-53::gfp expression in the postembryonically generated AS neurons, but not the embryonically born DA neurons (Fig.1A,B). The lineal sister of the cholinergic AS neurons are the GABAergic VD motor neurons (Sulston, 1976). We find that an unc-47::mCherry marker (otIs348; (Gendrel et al., 2016)) also fails to be expressed in postembryonically generated VD motor neurons of ot762 mutants; in addition, there is also a reduction in the number of embryonically generated DD neurons (Fig.1A,B). Analysis of a panneuronal marker, rab-3, indicates a reduced number of neurons in the ventral nerve cord (Fig.1C), supporting the possibility that AS, DD and/or VD neurons may not be generated.
PY  - 2020
JO  - microPublication Biology
ER  -