Identification of an early subset of cerebellar nuclei neurons in mice.

Cerebellar nuclei (CN) neurons serve as the primary output of the cerebellum and originate from the cerebellar primordium at early stages of cerebellar development. These neurons are diverse, integrating information from the cerebellar cortex and relaying it to various brain regions. Employing various methodologies, we have characterized a specific subset of CN neurons that do not originate from the rhombic lip or ventricular zone of the cerebellar primordium.

Msx genes delineate a novel molecular map of the developing cerebellar neuroepithelium.

In the early cerebellar primordium, there are two progenitor zones, the ventricular zone (VZ) residing atop the IVth ventricle and the rhombic lip (RL) at the lateral edges of the developing cerebellum. These zones give rise to the several cell types that form the GABAergic and glutamatergic populations of the adult cerebellum, respectively. Recently, an understanding of the molecular compartmentation of these zones has emerged.

The ameliorative effects of choline on ethanol-induced cell death in the neural tube of susceptible BXD strains of mice.

Introduction: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are the leading preventable cause of intellectual disability, providing the impetus for evaluating various potential treatments to ameliorate ethanol's teratogenic effects, particularly in the nervous system. One treatment is the dietary supplement choline which has been shown to mitigate at least some of ethanol's teratogenic effects. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of genetics on choline's efficacy in ameliorating cell death in the developing neural tube.

Developmental coordination disorder: What can we learn from RI mice using motor learning tasks and QTL analysis.

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder of unknown etiology that affects one in 20 children. There is an indication that DCD has an underlying genetic component due to its high heritability. Therefore, we explored the use of a recombinant inbred family of mice known as the BXD panel to understand the genetic basis of complex traits (i.

Identification and characterization of transcribed enhancers during cerebellar development through enhancer RNA analysis.

Background: The development of the brain requires precise coordination of molecular processes across many cell-types. Underpinning these events are gene expression programs which require intricate regulation by non-coding regulatory sequences known as enhancers. In the context of the developing brain, transcribed enhancers (TEs) regulate temporally-specific expression of genes critical for cell identity and differentiation.