Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Neuroscience

A bar code for differentiation

Nature volume 458, pages 843–844 (2009)Cite this article

Regulating neuronal development can be complicated. But genetic control of neurotransmitter expression — as exemplified by differentiation of dopamine-secreting neurons — turns out to be relatively straightforward.

Specifying how nerve cells differentiate is a Herculean challenge: a huge number of neurons with extraordinary diversity of elaborate architectures and sophisticated functions materialize almost magically during a brief period of embryonic development. Differentiation of neurons into groups with distinct characteristics is known to require coordinated synthesis of many proteins, including enzymes that produce, and transporters that package, neurotransmitters. Success results from the orchestrated expression of batteries of genes, but the way in which this is achieved has remained unclear. In a remarkable paper in this issue (page 885), Flames and Hobert1 demonstrate how the differentiation of neurons of different lineages that share the ability to secrete the neurotransmitter dopamine is regulated at the level of gene transcription.

Your institute does not have access to this article

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Orchestrating neurotransmitter expression.

References

  1. Flames, N. & Hobert, O. Nature 458, 885–889 (2009).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Duggan, A., Ma, C. & Chalfie, M. Development 125, 4107–4119 (1998).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Etchberger, J. F. et al. Genes Dev. 21, 1653–1674 (2007).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Wenick, A. S. & Hobert, O. Dev. Cell 6, 757–770 (2004).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Hsiau, T. H.-C. et al. PLoS ONE 2, e643 (2007).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Shirasaki, R. & Pfaff, S. L. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 25, 251–281 (2002).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Weintraub, H. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 86, 5434–5438 (1989).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Halder, G., Callaerts, P. & Gehring, W. J. Science 267, 1788–1792 (1995).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Hobert, O. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 20067–20071 (2008).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biological Sciences and Center for Molecular Genetics, Nicholas C. Spitzer is in the Neurobiology Section, Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0357, USA. nspitzer@ucsd.edu,

    Nicholas C. Spitzer

Authors
  1. Nicholas C. Spitzer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Spitzer, N. A bar code for differentiation. Nature 458, 843–844 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/458843a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/458843a

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing