TY - JOUR
T1 - Unwrapping glial biology
T2 - Gcm target genes regulating glial development, diversification, and function
AU - Freeman, Marc R.
AU - Delrow, Jeffrey
AU - Kim, Junhyong
AU - Johnson, Eric
AU - Doe, Chris Q.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank U. Tepass, A. Giangrande, S. Carroll, B. Jones, R. Davis, B. Dickson, R. Reuter, and the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center for generously providing fly strains and antibodies; Victoria Robinson and Ari Winbush for technical assistance; and the University of Oregon Monoclonal Antibody Facility. All inquiries regarding the Seqseek search engine should be directed to E.J. (eric-johnson@molbio.uoregon.edu). This work was supported by Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant #PF-01-114-01-DDC from the American Cancer Society to M.R.F., a Merck Genome Research Institute Grant to J.K., an NIH/NCI Cancer Center Support Grant (P30 CA15704-30) to J.D., a Medical Research Foundation Grant to E.J., and NIH (HD27056) and HHMI funding to C.Q.D., who is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
PY - 2003/5/22
Y1 - 2003/5/22
N2 - Glia are the most abundant cell type in the mammalian brain. They regulate neuronal development and function, CNS immune surveillance, and stem cell biology, yet we know surprisingly little about glia in any organism. Here we identify over 40 new Drosophila glial genes. We use glial cells missing (gcm) mutants and misexpression to verify they are Gcm regulated in vivo. Many genes show unique spatiotemporal responsiveness to Gcm in the CNS, and thus glial subtype diversification requires spatially or temporally restricted Gcm cofactors. These genes provide insights into glial biology: we show unc-5 (a repulsive netrin receptor) orients glial migrations and the draper gene mediates glial engulfment of apoptotic neurons and larval locomotion. Many identified Drosophila glial genes have homologs expressed in mammalian glia, revealing conserved molecular features of glial cells. 80% of these Drosophila glial genes have mammalian homologs; these are now excellent candidates for regulating human glial development, function, or disease.
AB - Glia are the most abundant cell type in the mammalian brain. They regulate neuronal development and function, CNS immune surveillance, and stem cell biology, yet we know surprisingly little about glia in any organism. Here we identify over 40 new Drosophila glial genes. We use glial cells missing (gcm) mutants and misexpression to verify they are Gcm regulated in vivo. Many genes show unique spatiotemporal responsiveness to Gcm in the CNS, and thus glial subtype diversification requires spatially or temporally restricted Gcm cofactors. These genes provide insights into glial biology: we show unc-5 (a repulsive netrin receptor) orients glial migrations and the draper gene mediates glial engulfment of apoptotic neurons and larval locomotion. Many identified Drosophila glial genes have homologs expressed in mammalian glia, revealing conserved molecular features of glial cells. 80% of these Drosophila glial genes have mammalian homologs; these are now excellent candidates for regulating human glial development, function, or disease.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0038012647&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0038012647&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0896-6273(03)00289-7
DO - 10.1016/S0896-6273(03)00289-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 12765609
AN - SCOPUS:0038012647
SN - 0896-6273
VL - 38
SP - 567
EP - 580
JO - Neuron
JF - Neuron
IS - 4
ER -