High impact information on ind

• The establishment of dorsoventral column identity involves negative regulation: Vnd represses ind in the ventral column, whereas ind represses msh in the intermediate column [1].
• Vertebrate genes closely related to vnd (Nkx2.1 and Nkx2.2), ind (Gsh1 and Gsh2), and msh (Msx1 and Msx3) are expressed in corresponding ventral, intermediate, and dorsal domains during vertebrate neurogenesis, raising the possibility that dorsoventral patterning within the central nervous system is evolutionarily conserved [1].
• Dorsoventral patterning in the Drosophila central nervous system: the intermediate neuroblasts defective homeobox gene specifies intermediate column identity [1].
• These genes include the evolutionarily conserved transcription factors ventral nerve cord defective and intermediate neuroblasts defective, as well as the Drosophila EGF receptor [2].
• The Sox-domain containing gene Dichaete/fish-hook acts in concert with vnd and ind to regulate cell fate in the Drosophila neuroectoderm [2].

Biological context of ind

• Understanding the mechanisms involved in patterning vnd, ind, and msh expression is important, because DV columnar homeobox gene expression in the neuroectoderm is an early, essential, and evolutionarily conserved step in generating neuronal diversity along the DV axis of the CNS [3].
• For example, the misexpression of vnd in transgenic embryos represses ind and msh, and the addition of Vnd binding sites to a heterologous enhancer is sufficient to mediate repression [4].
• In this and the accompanying paper, we investigate the role of two homeobox genes, vnd and ind, in establishing ventral and intermediate cell fates within the Drosophila CNS [5].
• The ind enhancer also contains a variety of known activator and repressor elements [6].
• A novel silencer element was identified within the ind enhancer that is essential for eliminating expression in the dorsal ectoderm [6].

Regulatory relationships of ind

• Ectopic expression of sim in the ventral neuroectoderm during initial neurogenesis induced ectopic ind expression in the medial column in addition to that in the intermediate column via EGFR signaling between the ventral neuroectoderm and midline cells [7].

Other interactions of ind

• However, we uncovered significant differences in the expression of and regulatory interactions between vnd, ind and msh among brain segments, and in comparison to the ventral nerve cord [8].
• Genetic interactions of SoxNeuro and the dorsoventral patterning genes ventral nerve chord defective and intermediate neuroblasts defective underlie ventral and intermediate neuroblast formation [9].

References