Abstract
Our aim was to study the mechanisms that contribute to the development of discrete thalamic nuclei during mouse embryogenesis (both sexes included). We characterized the expression of the transcription factor coding gene Zic4 and the distribution of cells that expressed Zic4 in their lineage. We used genetic fate mapping to show that Zic4-lineage cells mainly contribute to a subset of thalamic nuclei, in particular the lateral geniculate nuclei (LGNs), which are crucial components of the visual pathway. We observed that almost all Zic4-lineage diencephalic progenitors express the transcription factor Pax6 at variable location-dependent levels. We used conditional mutagenesis to delete either one or both copies of Pax6 from Zic4-lineage cells. We found that Zic4-lineage cells carrying either homozygous or heterozygous loss of Pax6 contributed in abnormally high numbers to one or both of the main lateral geniculate nuclei (LGNs). This could not be attributed to a change in cell production and was likely due to altered sorting of thalamic cells. Our results indicate that positional information encoded by the levels of Pax6 in diencephalic progenitors is an important determinant of the eventual locations of their daughter cells.
Highlights
The diencephalon is one of the two major components of the vertebrate forebrain
In the E11.5 diencephalon (Fig. 1A–F), Zic4 transcripts were detected at highest levels in cells of the prethalamus (Fig. 1C1,D1) and the eminentia thalami (Fig. 1B1)
The Zic4 transcripts were concentrated in cells on the outer, pial side of the neuroepithelium (Fig. 1E)
Summary
The diencephalon is one of the two major components of the vertebrate forebrain. It contains several structures essential for brain function, including the thalamus and prethalamus. The thalamus is an important regulator of fundamental processes including sleep, alertness, con-. Received September 20, 2018; accepted September 22, 2018; First published October 9, 2018. The authors declare no competing financial interests.
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