Psychiatry related information on DLX1

• CONCLUSION: Decreased thalamic expression of DLX1 in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychosis suggests shared genetic deficits in expression of this homeobox gene [1].

High impact information on DLX1

• The second lineage, characterized by the expression of Dlx1/2 but not Mash1, forms around 35% of the GABAergic neurons and originates from the ganglionic eminence of the ventral forebrain [2].
• RESULTS: Patients with a history of psychosis showed significantly decreased relative numbers of DLX1-positive neurons compared with patients without history of psychosis and nonpsychiatric controls (P =.02), whereas no differences could be found in relative numbers of SHOX2-positive neurons (P>.15) [1].
• Decreased thalamic expression of the homeobox gene DLX1 in psychosis [1].
• We report here that, in addition to the previously reported regions/cells, DLX1 is expressed in hematopoietic cells in a lineage-dependent manner and that DLX1 interacts with Smad4 through its homeodomain [3].
• Taken together, these data suggest that DLX1 may function as a regulator of multiple signals from TGF-beta superfamily members in broad biological contexts during blood production [3].

Biological context of DLX1

• DLX1 has been reported to be temporally and spatially coexpressed with BMP-4 during embryogenesis in selected contexts [3].
• BACKGROUND: Linkage studies in autism have identified susceptibility loci on chromosomes 2q and 7q, regions containing the DLX1/2 and DLX5/6 bigene clusters [4].

Anatomical context of DLX1

• Here we explore the mechanisms that result in olfactory bulb interneuron defects in Dlx1&2-/- (distal-less homeobox 1 and 2) and Mash1-/- (mammalian achaete-schute homolog 1) mutants [5].

Physical interactions of DLX1

• Homeoprotein DLX-1 interacts with Smad4 and blocks a signaling pathway from activin A in hematopoietic cells [3].

Other interactions of DLX1

• DLX1 is the product of a member of the distal-less homeobox gene family, which is known to have important roles in embryogenesis, particularly in craniofacial development, and in GABAergic neurogenesis [3].
• Finally, we have mapped DLX5, a member of the Distal-less homeobox gene family, to the SHFD1 critical interval [6].

References