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Updated: May 12, 2026

Using Whole Mount in situ Hybridization to Link Molecular and Organismal Biology
Published on: March 31, 2011
Hox genes: the instructors working at motor pools
Mi-Ryoung Song1, Samuel L Pfaff
1Gene Expression Laboratory, The Salk Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
Abstract:
Motor neurons are assigned unique subidentities preceding their axon navigation. This ensures proper innervation of muscle targets and is accompanied by a stereotypical clustering of motor neuron cell bodies into "motor pools" within the spinal cord. However, the mechanisms that drive motor neuron diversification have been poorly understood. A new study by Dasen et al. (2005) in this issue of Cell shows that a network of Hox genes is responsible for instructing motor pool development.
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