Ameixa, Maria Clara Quintas; (1998) Regulation of RXRγ gene expression in embryonic chick cells. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Neural crest cells differentiate into a broad range of cell types, including neurons and glial cells of the peripheral nervous system, pigment cells and the mesenchymal cells that give rise to the craniofacial skeleton. An important problem concerns the mechanisms by which gene expression is regulated in neural crest cells differentiating along these different lineages. We have previously shown that expression of the nuclear receptor RXRγ is maintained in neural crest-derived cells in the cranial ganglia, dorsal root ganglia and sympathetic ganglia. However, RXRγ expression is switched off in the cranial neural crest-derived mesenchymal cells of the facial primordia. I have analysed the mechanisms that regulate this differential expression. From the previously isolated chick RXRγ genomic clone, I mapped the promoter used in neural crest-derived cells and showed that this promoter is also used to direct RXRγ gene expression in the developing chick neural retina. I constructed a series of luciferase reporter plasmids using fragments of the RXRγ gene promoter region, and performed transient transfection assays in cultures of cells isolated from developing chick facial primordia, dorsal root ganglia and neural retina. This enabled the identification of sequences that direct high levels of luciferase gene expression in neural retina cells, but not in facial mesenchyme or dorsal root ganglia cells. I analysed these sequences in terms of DNA-protein interactions.

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