Chapter category: Reproductive Biology
Important Role of Shh Controlling Gli3 Functions During the Dorsal-Ventral Patterning of the Telencephalon
Chapter authors:
Jun Motoyama and Kazushi Aoto
The dorsal-ventral patterning of the telencephalon is a crucial for the normal brain function, because it determines the proportion of two different types of basic neurons, glutamatergic excitatory neurons and GABAergic inhibitory neurons. The secreted protein sonic hedgehog (Shh) is required for the ventral cell specification, whereas zinc finger transcription factor Gli3 seems to be important for the dorsal cell type specification. Recent studies suggest that how both Gli3 and Shh control the normal proportion of dorsal and ventral cell types to generate appropriate tissue size and shape during brain development. These observations may offer a new aspect to our understanding of activity gradient of Shh signal during brain development.
