High impact information on nkx2.2a

• Together, these results suggest a requirement of shh/vhh-1 protein for the spatial regulation of nk2.2 expression [1].
• Expression of zebrafish nk2.2 is influenced by sonic hedgehog/vertebrate hedgehog-1 and demarcates a zone of neuronal differentiation in the embryonic forebrain [1].
• We have isolated zebrafish nk2.2, a member of the Nk-2 family of homeobox genes. nk2.2 is expressed in a continuous narrow band of cells along a boundary zone demarcating the location at which two of the earliest nuclei in the brain differentiate [1].
• Consistent with a direct role for Hh signaling in pituitary induction and patterning, overexpression of Shh results in expanded adenohypophyseal expression of lim3, expansion of nk2.2 into the posterior adenohypophysis, and an increase in Prolactin- and Somatolactin-secreting cells [2].
• Commitment of ventral neural progenitors to the oligodendrocyte fate is thought to require co-ordinate, hedgehog-dependent expression of olig2 and nkx2.2a in these cells, leading to expression of sox10 and subsequent differentiation of oligodendrocytes [3].

References