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Control of planar divisions by the G-protein regulator LGN maintains progenitors in the chick neuroepithelium

Nature Neuroscience volume 10, pages 1440–1448 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The spatio-temporal regulation of symmetrical as opposed to asymmetric cell divisions directs the fate and location of cells in the developing CNS. In invertebrates, G-protein regulators control spindle orientation in asymmetric divisions, which generate progeny with different identities. We investigated the role of the G-protein regulator LGN (also called Gpsm2) in spindle orientation and cell-fate determination in the spinal cord neuroepithelium of the developing chick embryo. We show that LGN is located at the cell cortex and spindle poles of neural progenitors, and that it regulates spindle movements and orientation. LGN promotes planar divisions in the early spinal cord. Interfering with LGN function randomizes the plane of division. Notably, this does not affect cell fate, but frequently leads one daughter of proliferative symmetric divisions to exit the neuroepithelium prematurely and to proliferate aberrantly in the mantle zone. Hence, tight control of planar spindle orientation maintains neural progenitors in the neuroepithelium, and regulates the proper development of the nervous system.

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Figure 1: Expression of LGN in the chick embryonic neural tube.
Figure 2: cLGN regulates planar spindle orientation in neuroepithelial cells.
Figure 3: Ct-cLGN expression reduces metaphase plate movements in neuroepithelial cells.
Figure 4: In vivo clonal analysis of the fate and distribution of pairs of sister cells.
Figure 5: Ectopic expression of progenitor markers in the mantle zone of cLGN-deficient embryos.
Figure 6: Hyperproliferation of abventricular progenitors in cLGN-deficient embryos.
Figure 7: Ectopic progenitors cycle for several days in the mantle zone independently from cLGN misregulation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and an Association Française contre les Myopathies grant (11942-SR-C) to X.M. F.J. is the recipient of a PhD fellowship from the French Ministry for Higher Education and Research. We thank J. Hazan (King's College London, UK) for RT-PCR cloning of the full-length chick LGN cDNA, D. Henrique (University of Lisbon, Portugal) for the hes5-1 plasmid, K. Hadjantonakis (Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York) for the pCX-H2B-EGFP plasmid, F. Yu (Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore) and R. Kaushik (IMCB, Singapore) for mouse LGN cDNA, and the PICsL imaging core facility for expert technical assistance. We thank C. Goridis and V. Dubreuil (Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris), W. Chia (Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore), A. Moqrich (IBDML Marseille) and members of the Durbec group for critical reading of the manuscript.

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  1. Xavier Morin and Florence Jaouen: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Developmental Biology of Marseille–Luminy, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR 6216, Case 907, Campus de Luminy, Marseille, 13288, Cedex9, France

    Xavier Morin, Florence Jaouen & Pascale Durbec

  2. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR6216, Institute of Developmental Biology of Marseill-Luminy, Case 907, Campus de Luminy, Marseille, 13288, Cedex9, France

    Xavier Morin, Florence Jaouen & Pascale Durbec

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X.M. and P.D. supervised the project, X.M. and F.J. performed the experiments and X.M. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xavier Morin.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–3 (PDF 456 kb)

Supplementary Video 1

Time-lapse analysis of metaphase movements in a control embryo. H2B-EGFP is used as a chromosomal reporter. The ventricular surface (apical) is on top. Each frame is a projection of a 21-μm-thick stack of confocal sections taken at 1-μm z-intervals. Frames were taken at 1-min intervals over a 200-min period. Most metaphase nuclei display strong rotation and oscillatory movements. Colored asterisks mark several representative cells during prophase, and are erased at the onset of metaphase for better visualization of metaphase movements and anaphase. (MOV 3007 kb)

Supplementary Video 2

Time-lapse analysis of metaphase movements in a Ct-cLGN expressing embryo. H2B-EGFP is used as a chromosomal reporter. The ventricular surface (apical) is on top. Each frame is a projection of a 21-μm-thick stack of confocal sections taken at 1-μm z intervals. Frames were taken at 1-min intervals over a 180-min period. Metaphase nuclei display very weak oscillatory movements. Colored asterisks mark several representative cells during prophase, and are erased at the onset of metaphase for better visualization of metaphase movements and anaphase. (MOV 2787 kb)

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Morin, X., Jaouen, F. & Durbec, P. Control of planar divisions by the G-protein regulator LGN maintains progenitors in the chick neuroepithelium. Nat Neurosci 10, 1440–1448 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1984

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