Expression of major guidance receptors is differentially regulated in spinal commissural neurons transfated by mammalian Barh genes

During development, commissural neurons in the spinal cord project their axons across the ventral midline, floor plate, via multiple interactions among temporally controlled molecular guidance cues and receptors. The transcriptional regulation of commissural axon-associated receptors, however, is not well characterized. Spinal dorsal cells are transfated into commissural neurons by misexpression of Mbh1, a Bar-class homeobox gene. We examined the function of another Bar-class homeobox gene, Mbh2, and how Mbh1 and Mbh2 modulate expression of the receptors, leading to midline crossing of axons. Misexpression of Mbh1 and Mbh2 showed the same effects in the spinal cord. The competence of spinal dorsal cells to become commissural neurons was dependent on the embryonic stage, during which misexpression of the Mbh genes was able to activate guidance receptor genes such as Rig1 and Nrp2. Misexpression of Lhx2, which has been recently shown to be involved in Rig1 expression, activated Rig1 but not Nrp2, and was less effective in generating commissural neurons. Moreover, expression of Lhx2 was activated by and required the Mbh genes. These findings have revealed a transcriptional cascade, in which Lhx2-dependent and -independent pathways leading to expression of guidance receptors branch downstream of the Mbh genes.