Sonic hedgehog (Shh) plays well characterized roles in brain and spinal cord development, but its functions in the hypothalamus have been more difficult to elucidate owing to the complex neuroanatomy of this brain area. Here, we use fate mapping and conditional deletion models in mice to define requirements for dynamic Shh activity at distinct developmental stages in the tuberal hypothalamus, a brain region with important homeostatic functions. At early time points, Shh signaling regulates dorsoventral patterning, neurogenesis and the size of the ventral midline. Fate-mapping experiments demonstrate that Shh-expressing and-responsive progenitors contribute to distinct neuronal subtypes, accounting for some of the cellular heterogeneity in tuberal hypothalamic nuclei. Conditional deletion of the hedgehog transducer smoothened (Smo), after dorsoventral patterning has been established, reveals that Shh signaling is necessary to maintain proliferation and progenitor identity during peak periods of hypothalamic neurogenesis. We also find that mosaic disruption of Smo causes a non-cell autonomous gain in Shh signaling activity in neighboring wild-type cells, suggesting a mechanism for the pathogenesis of hypothalamic hamartomas, benign tumors that form during hypothalamic development.

Septo-optic dysplasia (SOD) is a congenital disorder characterized by optic nerve, pituitary and midline brain malformations. The clinical presentation of SOD is highly variable with a poorly understood etiology. The majority of SOD cases are sporadic, but in rare instances inherited mutations have been identified in a small number of transcription factors, some of which regulate the expression of Sonic hedgehog (Shh) during mouse forebrain development. SOD is also associated with young maternal age, suggesting that environmental factors, including alcohol consumption at early stages of pregnancy, might increase the risk of developing this condition. Here, we address the hypothesis that SOD is a multifactorial disorder stemming from interactions between mutations in Shh pathway genes and prenatal ethanol exposure. Mouse embryos with mutations in the Shh co-receptor, Cdon, were treated in utero with ethanol or saline at embryonic day 8 (E8.0) and evaluated for optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH), a prominent feature of SOD. We show that both Cdon−/− mutation and prenatal ethanol exposure independently cause ONH through a similar pathogenic mechanism that involves selective inhibition of Shh signaling in retinal progenitor cells, resulting in their premature cell-cycle arrest, precocious differentiation and failure to properly extend axons to the optic nerve. The ONH phenotype was not exacerbated in Cdon−/− embryos treated with ethanol, suggesting that an intact Shh signaling pathway is required for ethanol to exert its teratogenic effects. These results support a model whereby mutations in Cdon and prenatal ethanol exposure increase SOD risk through spatiotemporal perturbations in Shh signaling activity.

Histone acetylation is a key component in the consolidation of long-term fear memories. Histone acetylation is fueled by acetyl-coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA), and recently, nuclear-localized metabolic enzymes that produce this metabolite have emerged as direct and local regulators of chromatin. In particular, acetyl-CoA synthetase 2 (ACSS2) mediates histone acetylation in the mouse hippocampus. However, whether ACSS2 regulates long-term fear memory remains to be determined. Here, we show that Acss2 knockout is well tolerated in mice, yet the Acss2-null mouse exhibits reduced acquisition of long-term fear memory. Loss of Acss2 leads to reductions in both histone acetylation and expression of critical learning and memory-related genes in the dorsal hippocampus, specifically following fear conditioning. Furthermore, systemic administration of blood–brain barrier–permeable Acss2 inhibitors during the consolidation window reduces fear-memory formation in mice and rats and reduces anxiety in a predator-scent stress paradigm. Our findings suggest that nuclear acetyl-CoA metabolism via ACSS2 plays a critical, previously unappreciated, role in the formation of fear memories.

Central pattern generators (CPGs) are neuronal networks in the spinal cord that generate rhythmic patterns of motor activity in the absence of movement-related sensory feedback. For many vertebrate rhythmic behaviors, CPGs generate normal patterns of motor neuron activities as well as variations of the normal patterns, termed deletions, in which bursts in one or more motor nerves are absent from one or more cycles of the rhythm. Prior work with hip-extensor deletions during turtle rostral scratch supports hypotheses of hip-extensor interneurons in a hip-extensor module and of hip-flexor interneurons in a hip-flexor module. We present here single-unit interneuronal recording data that support hypotheses of knee-extensor interneurons in a knee-extensor module and of knee-flexor interneurons in a knee-flexor module. Members of knee-related modules are not members of hip-related modules and vice versa. These results in turtle provide experimental support at the single-unit interneuronal level for the organizational concept that the rostral-scratch CPG for the turtle hindlimb is multipartite, that is, composed of more than two modules. This work, when combined with experimental and computational work in other vertebrates, does not support the classical view that the vertebrate limb CPG is bipartite with only two modules, one controlling all the flexors of the limb and the other controlling all the extensors of the limb. Instead, these results support the general principle that spinal CPGs are multipartite.

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