Oral communication, GL1

Official XXIst International Pigment Cell Conference website - 21-24 Sept 2011, Bordeaux - France | updated: September 04 2011

Update on neural crest: Deciphering gene regulatory interactions controlling neural crest formation

The neural crest is a multipotent stem cell-like population that gives rise to a wide range of derivatives in vertebrate embryo, including elements of craniofacial skeleton and peripheral nervous system, as well as melanocytes. Neural crest cells form in a series of regulatory steps that include induction and specification of the prospective neural crest territory at neural plate border, followed by specification of bona fide neural crest progenitors and their subsequent differentiation into diverse derivatives. These individual processes during neural crest ontogeny are orchestrated by a hierarchical gene regulatory network (GRN) comprised of a series of transcriptional circuits. I will present an overview of the current representation of neural crest GRN, inferred from gene perturbation studies performed in several vertebrate model organisms. Additional resolution is provided by interrogating direct regulatory interactions via cis-regulatory analyses. In addition to increasing the resolution of the architectural circuitry within the network, our analyses have permitted us to address the contribution/co-operation of key chromatin remodeling events to the regulatory process controlling early neural crest formation.

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