Control of neuronal subtype identity by the C. elegans ARID protein CFI-1 (original) (raw)

1. Shai Shaham1,2 and
2. Cornelia I. Bargmann
3. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Programs in Developmental Biology, Neuroscience, and Genetics, Department of Anatomy and Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, The University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143, USA

Abstract

The Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite nervous system is composed of 302 neurons that fall into at least 118 diverse classes. Here we describe cfi-1, a gene that contributes to the development of neuronal diversity. cfi-1 promotes appropriate differentiation of the URA sensory neurons and inhibits URA from expressing the male-specific CEM neuronal fate. The UNC-86 POU homeodomain protein is present in CEM and URA neurons, and can promote expression of CEM-specific genes in both CEM and URA, but CFI-1 inhibits expression of these genes in the URA cells. cfi-1 also promotes appropriate differentiation and glutamate receptor expression in the AVD and PVC interneurons. cfi-1 encodes a conserved neuron- and muscle-restricted DNA-binding protein containing an A/T rich interaction domain (ARID). ARID proteins regulate early patterning and muscle fate in Drosophila, but they have not previously been implicated in the control of neuronal subtype identity.

• cfi-1
• cell fate
• ARID
• CEM neurons
• programmed cell death
• C. elegans

Footnotes

• ↵1 Present address: The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021, USA.

• ↵2 Corresponding author.

• E-MAIL shaham{at}mail.rockefeller.edu; FAX (212) 327-7076.

• Article and publication are at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.976002.

• • Received January 15, 2002.
  • Accepted February 28, 2002.

• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

•