Multipotent retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) give rise to the various cell types of the vertebrate retina, from photoreceptors to glial cells. This neuronal diversity is temporally patterned: RPC competence changes over developmental time, so that cell types arise in a particular order. Cell-intrinsic temporal identity factors have been identified in the Drosophila neuroblast lineage, and some of these factors are conserved in mice to control timely production of specific retinal cell types, but the control of other cell types is poorly understood, as is the more general question of how time-restricted cell type production is achieved. Now, Michel Cayouette and colleagues reveal a critical role for the POU-homeodomain factors Pou2f1/Pou2f2 (which are homologs of Drosophila nub/pdm2) in the production of mouse cone photoreceptors. Pou2f1/2 are expressed in RPCs in early developmental stages, when cones are being produced, and artificially extending their expression to later stages leads to ectopic cone production at the expense of late-born cell types. Pou2f1 induces Pou2f2 expression, which it requires to promote cone fate, and conditional knockout of Pou2f2 in RPCs reduces cone cell number. Finally, Pou2f2 suppresses expression of the rod-inducing factor Nrl via a POU-binding motif in its promotor region. Thus, a pathway leading from Pou2f1 to Pou2f2 to Nrl ensures timely cone production.
It's about time: Pou2f1/Pou2f2 and cone photoreceptor development
- Split-screen
- Views Icon Views
-
Article Versions Icon
Versions
- Version of Record 28 September 2020
- Share Icon Share
-
Tools Icon
Tools
- Search Site
It's about time: Pou2f1/Pou2f2 and cone photoreceptor development. Development 15 September 2020; 147 (18): e1804. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Call for papers: Uncovering Developmental Diversity
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Uncovering Developmental Diversity. This issue will be coordinated by our academic Editor Cassandra Extavour (Harvard University, USA) alongside two Guest Editors: Liam Dolan (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria) and Karen Sears (University of California Los Angeles, USA).
Choose Development in 2024
In this Editorial, Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown explain how you support your community by publishing in Development and how the journal champions serious science, community connections and progressive publishing.
Journal Meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development
Register now for the 2024 Development Journal Meeting From Stem Cells to Human Development. Early-bird registration deadline: 3 May. Abstract submission deadline: 21 June.
Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology
This collaborative Perspective, the result of a workshop held in 2023, proposes a set of community actions to increase the visibility of the developmental biology field. The authors make recommendations for new funding streams, frameworks for collaborations and mechanisms by which members of the community can promote themselves and their research.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.