Gene Regulatory Factors That Control The Identities Of Specific Neuron Types In Caenorhabditis Elegans

I have also studied the fate determination of several distinct neuronal cell types. I dissected the cis-regulatory information of AIA expressed genes and identified that the LIM homeodomain transcription factor TTX-3 is required for AIA fate, possibly together with another yet unknown transcription factor. TTX-3 also acts synergistically with the POU-domain transcription factor UNC-86 as master regulators for NSM. TTX-3 may also act as the terminal selector for ASK. This work provides extra evidence for the terminal selector concept and further demonstrates that individual neurons use unique and combinatorial codes of transcription factors to achieve their terminal identities, and that the same regulatory factor can be reused as a terminal selector in distinct cell types through cooperation with different cofactors.