Roles of Yap in neural development

• Main Authors: Ying-Hsuan Lee, 李映萱
• Other Authors: Jenn-Yah Yu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/52251561394024220016

碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 生命科學系暨基因體科學研究所 === 104 === The Hippo pathway plays important roles in regulating organ size. Yes-associated protein (Yap) is a core component of the Hippo pathway and a transcriptional coactivator. Although Yap functions have been demonstrated in various tissues, whether Yap is involved neural development in vivo remains unclear. Here, I examined the developing nervous system of Yap conditional knockout (cKO) mice driven by Nestin-Cre. Nestin-Cre, which is expressed in most neural progenitor cells from Embryonic day 10.5 (E10.5). No obvious morphological defect observed in the forebrain at E14.5 and E18.5 Yap CKO mice. However, the number of mitotic cells is reduced at E14.5 and E18.5 Yap CKO mice. The distribution of intermediate progenitor cells (IPCs) is increased in the subventricular zone (SVZ) at E18.5. At postnatal day 10 (P10), the posterior part of the cerebral cortex is thinner and the volumes of striatum and thalamus are reduce dramatically in comparison with the control. Proliferating Ki67-positive cells in the SVZ are reduced in Yap mutant mice. In addition, matured neurons and interneurons are accumulated in the ventricular zone (VZ) of the cortex. Furthermore, the numbers of deep- and upper-layer projection neurons are decreased in the cortex. Interestingly, some neurons express markers of both deep-layer and upper-layer neurons. Together, my results indicate that Yap plays important roles in cell proliferation, neuronal differentiation and layer specification in the developing cortex.