Brain development is a highly orchestrated process involving numerous parallel and sequential steps. Many of these steps depend on the activation of specific genes. A team led by Christian Mayer at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence discovered that a protein called MEIS2 plays a crucial role in this process: it activates genes necessary for the formation of inhibitory projection neurons. These neurons are vital for motion control and decision-making.
Using a barcoding approach, Christian Mayer and his team followed the family relationships between precursor cells and young inhibitory neurons. They discovered that a protein called MEIS2 plays an important role when a precursor cell 'decides' whether it should turn into an interneuron or into a projection neuron: MEIS2 assists the cellular machinery to activate the genes that are required for a precursor cell to become a projection neuron.
Recent large-scale whole exome sequencing studies in patients have provided a systematic and highly reliable identification of risk genes for neurodevelopmental disorders. Future studies focusing on the molecular interactions between the proteins encoded by these risk genes, such as MEIS2, will pave the way for a comprehensive understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders.Elena Dvoretskova, May C. Ho, Volker Kittke, Florian Neuhaus, Ilaria Vitali, Daniel D.
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