Journal article
The transcription factor Nerfin-1 prevents reversion of neurons into neural stem cells
F Froldi, M Szuperak, CF Weng, W Shi, AT Papenfuss, LY Cheng
Genes and Development | Published : 2015
Abstract
Cellular dedifferentiation is the regression of a cell from a specialized state to a more multipotent state and is implicated in cancer. However, the transcriptional network that prevents differentiated cells from reacquiring stem cell fate is so far unclear. Neuroblasts (NBs), the Drosophila neural stem cells, are a model for the regulation of stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. Here we show that the Drosophila zinc finger transcription factor Nervous fingers 1 (Nerfin-1) locks neurons into differentiation, preventing their reversion into NBs. Following Prospero-dependent neuronal specification in the ganglion mother cell (GMC), a Nerfin-1-specific transcriptional program maintains ..
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Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Ward Odenwald, Thomas Brody, and Alex Kuzin for generously sharing extensive published and unpublished Nerfin-1 reagents. The early part of this work was carried out by L.Y.C. in Alex Gould's laboratory at the National Institute for Medical Research, London. We thank him and his laboratory for their advice, support, and guidance. We thank Holger Apitz, Alex Gould, Kieran Harvey, Carole Poon, Helena Richardson, and Joep Vissers for critical reading of the manuscript. We are grateful to C. Doe, A. Gould, F. Matsuzaki, H. Richardson, K. Harvey, Y.N. Jan, J. Skeath, Bloomington Stock Center, and VDRC for reagents. We also thank OZDros for their special assistance in Drosophila stock quarantine; Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute Confocal Microscopy Core, FACS Core, and Genomics Core facilities for expert technical assistance; Mark Dawson for valuable technical advice on ChIP; and Fabrizio Pastori for graphical illustration assistance. This work was funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (APP1044704).