Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 13, 2025

Initiating Differentiation in Immortalized Multipotent Otic Progenitor Cells
Published on: January 2, 2016
Polycomb repressive complex 2 regulates basal cell fate during adult olfactory neurogenesis
Tiffany Ko1, Rhea Choi2, Khalil Issa2
1Department of Neurobiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Abstract:
Adult neurogenesis occurs in the mammalian olfactory epithelium to maintain populations of neurons that are vulnerable to injury yet essential for olfaction. Multipotent olfactory basal stem cells are activated by damage, although mechanisms regulating lineage decisions are not understood. Using mouse lesion models, we focused on defining the role of Polycomb repressive complexes (PRCs) in olfactory neurogenesis. PRC2 has a well-established role in developing tissues, orchestrating transcriptional programs via chromatin modification. PRC2 proteins are expressed in olfactory globose basal cells (GBCs) and nascent neurons. Conditional PRC2 loss perturbs lesion-induced neuron production, accompanied by altered histone modifications and misexpression of lineage-specific transcription factors in GBCs. De-repression of Sox9 in PRC2-mutant GBCs is accompanied by increased Bowman's gland production, defining an unrecognized role for PRC2 in regulating gland versus neuron cell fate. Our findings support a model for PRC2-dependent mechanisms promoting sensory neuronal differentiation in an adult neurogenic niche.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Somatic to iPS Cell Reprogramming
Combinatorial Gene Control
The expression of more than 30,000 genes is controlled by approximately 2000-3000 transcription factors. This is possible because a single transcription factor can recognize more than one regulatory sequence. The specificity in gene...
Regulation of Expression Occurs at Multiple Steps
Transcription results in the generation of precursor (pre-mRNA) that consists of both exons and introns, which needs further processing before being translated to a...
Master Transcription Regulators
Regulation of Expression at Multiple Steps
Olfaction
The olfactory receptors are embedded in the cilia of the...

