Spinal cord precursors utilize neural crest cell mechanisms to generate hybrid peripheral myelinating glia

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Abstract

During development, oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells myelinate central and peripheral nervous system axons, respectively, while motor exit point (MEP) glia are neural tube-derived, peripheral glia that myelinate axonal territory between these populations at MEP transition zones. From which specific neural tube precursors MEP glia are specified, and how they exit the neural tube to migrate onto peripheral motor axons, remain largely unknown. Here, using zebrafish, we found that MEP glia arise from lateral floor plate precursors and require foxd3 to delaminate and exit the spinal cord. Additionally, we show that similar to Schwann cells, MEP glial development depends on axonally-derived neuregulin1. Finally, our data demonstrate that overexpressing axonal cues is sufficient to generate additional MEP glia in the spinal cord. Overall, these studies provide new insight into how a novel population of hybrid, peripheral myelinating glia are generated from neural tube precursors and migrate into the periphery.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.

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Author details

Laura Fontenas

Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0544-0147
Sarah Kucenas

Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, United States

For correspondence
sk4ub@virginia.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1950-751X

Funding

NIH NINDS (NS072212)

Sarah Kucenas

NIH NINDS (NS107525)

Sarah Kucenas

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All animal studies were approved by the University of Virginia Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, Protocol #3782.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.