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  • The EMBO Journal (2004) 23, 4495 - 4505
  • doi:10.1038/sj.emboj.7600447

Published online: 21 October 2004

Mash1 specifies neurons and oligodendrocytes in the postnatal brain

Carlos M Parras1,2, Rossella Galli3, Olivier Britz1,2, Sylvia Soares4, Christophe Galichet1,2, James Battiste5, Jane E Johnson5, Masato Nakafuku6, Angelo Vescovi3 and François Guillemot1,2

  1. Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Cellulaire et Moléculaire, Illkirch, France
  2. Division of Molecular Neurobiology, National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London, UK
  3. Stem Cell Research Institute, HS Raffaele, Milan, Italy
  4. UMR7501, CNRS-UPC, Université P&M Curie, Paris, France
  5. Center for Basic Neuroscience, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
  6. Division of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Cincinnati, OH, USA

Correspondence to:

François Guillemot, Division of Molecular Neurobiology, National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK. Tel.: +44 208 816 2740; Fax: +44 208 816 2109; E-mail: fguille@nimr.mrc.ac.uk

Received 22 April 2004; Accepted 23 September 2004

Progenitors in the telencephalic subventricular zone (SVZ) remain mitotically active throughout life, and produce different cell types at embryonic, postnatal and adult stages. Here we show that Mash1, an important proneural gene in the embryonic telencephalon, is broadly expressed in the postnatal SVZ, in progenitors for both neuronal and oligodendrocyte lineages. Moreover, Mash1 is required at birth for the generation of a large fraction of neuronal and oligodendrocyte precursors from the olfactory bulb. Clonal analysis in culture and transplantation experiments in postnatal brain demonstrate that this phenotype reflects a cell-autonomous function of Mash1 in specification of these two lineages. The conservation of Mash1 function in the postnatal SVZ suggests that the same transcription mechanisms operate throughout life to specify cell fates in this structure, and that the profound changes in the cell types produced reflect changes in the signalling environment of the SVZ.

  • Keywords:

    • adult neurogenesis,
    • brain,
    • oligodendrogenesis,
    • transcription factor,
    • transplantation