Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

RORα Coordinates Thalamic and Cortical Maturation to Instruct Barrel Cortex Development.

Tania Vitalis1,2, Luce Dauphinot2,3, Pierre Gressens1

  • 1PROTECT, INSERM, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France.

Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
|October 18, 2017
PubMed
Summary

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Caregiver-Associated Physical Activity Patterns, Dietary Behaviors and Interventional Beliefs in Individuals with Down Syndrome: Insights from a Large European Survey.

Nutrients·2026
Same author

Understanding Obesity in Individuals with Down Syndrome: Caregiver Perceptions, Awareness, and Motivation.

Nutrients·2026
Same author

Promoting Research Excellence in Down Syndrome: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference of the Trisomy 21 Research Society.

Neuromolecular medicine·2026
Same author

Common pathogenic mechanisms in the hippocampus across neurodegenerative dementias: Alzheimer's disease, Down syndrome, and Parkinson's disease.

NPJ dementia·2026
Same author

The effect of childhood trauma on the severity of depressive symptoms and drug resistance in major depressive disorder - results from the international PROMPT study.

Journal of affective disorders·2026
Same author

The spatiotemporal dynamics of postnatal vascularization in the mouse brain.

Cell·2026

The retinoic acid-related orphan receptor alpha (RORα) is crucial for developing somatosensory maps. RORα deficiency disrupts thalamocortical axon branching and cortical neuron maturation, impacting brain structure.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Biology
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • The retinoic acid-related orphan receptor alpha (RORα) is recognized for its role in cerebellar development.
  • Its function in other brain regions, particularly sensory map formation, remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the novel role of RORα in the development of primary somatosensory maps.
  • To elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying RORα's function in the somatosensory system.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized staggerer mice, exhibiting RORα deficiency, to study somatosensory map development.
  • Performed conditional RORα deletion in thalamus and cortex to assess cell-autonomous functions.
  • Conducted microarray analysis to identify RORα-regulated genes.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • RORα deficiency in staggerer mice led to disrupted cortical barrels and thalamic barreloids.
  • Observed reduced thalamocortical axon branching and defective layer IV cortical neuron maturation.
  • RORα is cell-autonomously required in the thalamus for axon organization and in the cortex for neuronal maturation.

Conclusions:

  • RORα plays a critical, previously unrecognized role in establishing primary somatosensory maps.
  • RORα regulates thalamocortical axon organization and cortical neuron maturation in a cell-autonomous manner.
  • RORα-regulated genes like Sema7a, Neph, and Adcy8 may mediate these developmental processes.