PUBLICATION

Building a bridal chamber: development of the thalamus

Authors
Scholpp, S., and Lumsden, A.
ID
ZDB-PUB-100621-4
Date
2010
Source
Trends in neurosciences   33(8): 373-380 (Review)
Registered Authors
Lumsden, Andrew, Scholpp, Steffen
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Body Patterning/genetics
  • Cell Differentiation/genetics
  • Cell Movement/genetics
  • Chick Embryo
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
  • Mice
  • Signal Transduction/genetics
  • Thalamus/embryology*
  • Thalamus/metabolism
  • Transcription Factors/genetics
  • Transcription Factors/metabolism*
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
20541814 Full text @ Trends Neurosci.
Abstract
The thalamus is a central brain region that plays a crucial role in distributing incoming sensory information to appropriate regions of the cortex. The thalamus develops in the posterior part of the embryonic forebrain, where early cell fate decisions are controlled by a local signaling center - the mid-diencephalic organizer - which forms at the boundary between prospective prethalamus and thalamus. In this review we discuss recent observations of early thalamic development in zebrafish, chick, and mouse embryos, that reveal a conserved set of interactions between homeodomain transcription factors. These interactions position the organizer along the neuraxis. The most prominent of the organizer's signals, Sonic hedgehog, is necessary for conferring regional identity on the prethalamus and thalamus and for patterning their differentiation.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping