Abstract
Vestibulospinal neurons are organized into discrete groups projecting from brainstem to spinal cord, enabling vertebrates to maintain proper balance and posture. The two largest groups are the lateral vestibulospinal tract (LVST) group and the contralateral medial vestibulospinal tract (cMVST) group, with different projection lateralities and functional roles. In search of a molecular basis for these differences, we performed RNA sequencing on LVST and cMVST neurons from mouse and chicken embryos followed by immunohistofluorescence validation. Focusing on transcription factor (TF)-encoding genes, we identified TF signatures that uniquely distinguish the LVST from the cMVST group and further parse different rhombomere-derived portions comprising the cMVST group. Immunohistofluorescence assessment of the CNS from spinal cord to cortex demonstrated that these TF signatures are restricted to the respective vestibulospinal groups and some neurons in their immediate vicinity. Collectively, these results link the combinatorial expression of TFs to developmental and functional subdivisions within the vestibulospinal system.
Footnotes
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
This work was supported by South-East Norway Regional Health Authority, project #2013022. We thank Jean-François Brunet for anti-chicken Phox2b antibody; Frederic Clotman for anti-Onecut antibodies; Martyn Goulding for anti-Evx1 antibody; Thomas Müller for anti-Lbx1 antibody; Ryuichi Shirasaki for anti-Evx2 antibody; Sasha Ilovar, Margaret Russell, and Anne Helene Fosby for assistance with some of the immunohistology, and Marian Berg Andersen and Kobra Sultani for additional technical assistance; Bernd Fritzsch and Christo Goridis for critical comments on an earlier draft of the paper; and the Norwegian Sequencing Center for guidance and sequencing services.
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