The mammalian telencephalon is considered the most complex of all biological structures. It comprises a large number of functionally and morphologically distinct types of neurons that coordinately control most aspects of cognition and behavior. The subpallium, for example, not only gives rise to multiple neuronal types that form the basal ganglia and parts of the amygdala and septum but also is the origin of an astonishing diversity of cortical interneurons. Despite our detailed knowledge on the molecular, morphological, and physiological properties of most of these neuronal populations, the mechanisms underlying their generation are still poorly understood. Here, we comprehensively analyzed the expression patterns of several transcription factors in the ventricular zone of the developing subpallium in the mouse to generate a detailed molecular map of the different progenitor domains present in this region. Our study demonstrates that the ventricular zone of the mouse subpallium contains at least 18 domains that are uniquely defined by the combinatorial expression of several transcription factors. Furthermore, the results of microtransplantation experiments in vivo corroborate that anatomically defined regions of the mouse subpallium, such as the medial ganglionic eminence, can be subdivided into functionally distinct domains.

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Most cortical interneurons arise from the subcortical telencephalon, but the molecules that control their migration remain largely unidentified. Here, we show that different isoforms of Neuregulin-1 are expressed in the developing cortex and in the route that migrating interneurons follow toward the cortex, whereas a population of the migrating interneurons express ErbB4, a receptor for Neuregulin-1. The different isoforms of Neuregulin-1 act as short- and long-range attractants for migrating interneurons, and perturbing ErbB4 function in vitro decreases the number of interneurons that tangentially migrate to the cortex. In vivo, loss of Neuregulin-1/ErbB4 signaling causes an alteration in the tangential migration of cortical interneurons and a reduction in the number of GABAergic interneurons in the postnatal cortex. These observations provide evidence that Neuregulin-1 and its ErbB4 receptor directly control neuronal migration in the nervous system.

Neuronal migration and axon guidance constitute fundamental processes in brain development that are generally studied independently. Although both share common mechanisms of cell biology and biochemistry, little is known about their coordinated integration in the formation of neural circuits. Here we show that the development of the thalamocortical projection, one of the most prominent tracts in the mammalian brain, depends on the early tangential migration of a population of neurons derived from the ventral telencephalon. This tangential migration contributes to the establishment of a permissive corridor that is essential for thalamocortical axon pathfinding. Our results also demonstrate that in this process two different products of the Neuregulin-1 gene, CRD-NRG1 and Ig-NRG1, mediate the guidance of thalamocortical axons. These results show that neuronal tangential migration constitutes a novel mechanism to control the timely arrangement of guidance cues required for axonal tract formation in the mammalian brain.

Dopamine signaling regulates a variety of complex behaviors and defects in dopaminergic neuron function or survival result in severe human pathologies, such as Parkinson's disease 1. The common denominator of all dopaminergic neurons is the expression of dopamine pathway genes, which code for a set of phylogenetically conserved proteins involved in dopamine synthesis and transport. Gene regulatory mechanisms that result in the activation of dopamine pathway genes and thereby ultimately determine the identity of dopaminergic neurons are poorly understood in any system studied to date 2. We show here that a simple cis-regulatory element, the DA motif, controls the expression of all dopamine pathway genes in all dopaminergic cell types in C. elegans. The DA motif is activated by the ETS transcription factor, AST-1. Loss of ast-1 results in the failure of all distinct dopaminergic neuronal subtypes to terminally differentiate. Ectopic expression of ast-1 is sufficient to activate the dopamine production pathway in some cellular contexts. Vertebrate dopaminergic pathway genes also contain phylogenetically conserved DA motifs that can be activated by the mouse ETS transcription factor Etv1/ER81 and a specific class of dopaminergic neurons fails to differentiate in mice lacking Etv1/ER81. Moreover, ectopic Etv1/ER81 expression induces dopaminergic fate marker expression in neuronal primary cultures. Mouse Etv1/ER81 can also functionally substitute for ast-1 in C.elegans. Our studies reveal an astoundingly simple and apparently conserved regulatory logic of dopaminergic neuron terminal differentiation and may provide new entry points into the diagnosis or therapy of conditions in which dopamine neurons are defective.

Forebrain cholinergic neurons play important roles as striatal local circuit neurons and basal telencephalic projection neurons. The genetic mechanisms that control development of these neurons suggest that most of them are derived from the basal telencephalon where Lhx8, a LIM-homeobox gene, is expressed. Here we report that mice with a null mutation of Lhx8 are deficient in the development of forebrain cholinergic neurons. Lhx8 mutants lack the nucleus basalis, a major source of the cholinergic input to the cerebral cortex. In addition, the number of cholinergic neurons is reduced in several other areas of the subcortical forebrain in Lhx8 mutants, including the caudate-putamen, medial septal nucleus, nucleus of the diagonal band, and magnocellular preoptic nucleus. Although cholinergic neurons are not formed, initial steps in their specification appear to be preserved, as indicated by a presence of cells expressing a truncated Lhx8 mRNA and mRNA of the homeobox gene Gbx1. These results provide genetic evidence supporting an important role for Lhx8 in development of cholinergic neurons in the forebrain.T he mammalian forebrain contains two general types of cholinergic neurons. One group is composed of local circuit neurons, such as the cholinergic interneurons of the striatum (1). These neurons play an important role in the regulation of locomotor behavior through their modulation of ␥-aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic projection neurons in the striatum (2). The other group consists of projection neurons whose cell bodies can be found in a series of nuclei in the subcortical telencephalon, including the medial septum (also designated as Ch1 cholinergic group by Mesulam et al., ref. 3), the vertical and horizontal limbs of the nucleus of the diagonal band (designated as Ch2 and Ch3, respectively; ref.3), and the basal magnocellular complex (designated as Ch4; ref.3), which comprises cholinergic neurons scattered through the magnocellular preoptic nucleus, substantia innominata, ventral pallidum, and nucleus basalis. The axonal projections of these neurons provide the cerebral cortex and hippocampus with their principal cholinergic input (3-6), which has a critical role in cognitive functions (for reviews, see refs. 7 and 8). Accordingly, abnormalities of the cholinergic projection neurons in the basal forebrain are implicated in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (9, 10).The genetic and developmental mechanisms that control the formation of forebrain cholinergic neurons are just beginning to be elucidated. The vast majority of forebrain cholinergic neurons derive from a region of the subcortical telencephalon that expresses the Nkx2-1 homeobox gene (11,12). This region contains different progenitor zones, including the medial ganglionic eminence (MGE), anterior entopeduncular area and preoptic area (POa) (13). It has been proposed that these progenitor domains contribute projection neurons to the globus pallidus, ventral pallidum, nucleus of the diagonal band, and parts of the septum and amygd...

The function of the nervous system depends on the precision of axon wiring during development. Previous studies have demonstrated that Slits, a family of secreted chemorepellent proteins, are crucial for the proper development of several major forebrain tracts. Mice deficient in Slit2 or, even more so, in both Slit1 and Slit2 have defects in multiple axonal pathways, including corticofugal, thalamocortical, and callosal connections. In the spinal cord, members of the Robo family of proteins help mediate the function of Slits, but the relative contribution of these receptors to the guidance of forebrain projections remains to be determined. In the present study, we addressed the function of Robo1 and Robo2 in the guidance of forebrain projections by analyzing Robo1-, Robo2-, and Robo1;Robo2-deficient mice. Mice deficient in Robo2 and, more dramatically, in both Robo1 and Robo2, display prominent axon guidance errors in the development of corticofugal, thalamocortical, and corticocortical callosal connections. Our results demonstrate that Robo1 and Robo2 mostly cooperate to mediate the function of Slit proteins in guiding the major forebrain projections.

Transcription factors that drive neuron type-specific terminal differentiation programs in the developing nervous system are often expressed in several distinct neuronal cell types, but to what extent they have similar or distinct activities in individual neuronal cell types is generally not well explored. We investigate this problem using, as a starting point, the C. elegans LIM homeodomain transcription factor ttx-3, which acts as a terminal selector to drive the terminal differentiation program of the cholinergic AIY interneuron class. Using a panel of different terminal differentiation markers, including neurotransmitter synthesizing enzymes, neurotransmitter receptors and neuropeptides, we show that ttx-3 also controls the terminal differentiation program of two additional, distinct neuron types, namely the cholinergic AIA interneurons and the serotonergic NSM neurons. We show that the type of differentiation program that is controlled by ttx-3 in different neuron types is specified by a distinct set of collaborating transcription factors. One of the collaborating transcription factors is the POU homeobox gene unc-86, which collaborates with ttx-3 to determine the identity of the serotonergic NSM neurons. unc-86 in turn operates independently of ttx-3 in the anterior ganglion where it collaborates with the ARID-type transcription factor cfi-1 to determine the cholinergic identity of the IL2 sensory and URA motor neurons. In conclusion, transcription factors operate as terminal selectors in distinct combinations in different neuron types, defining neuron type-specific identity features.