TY - JOUR TI - A neuroepithelial wave of BMP signalling drives anteroposterior specification of the tuberal hypothalamus AU - Chinnaiya, Kavitha AU - Burbridge, Sarah AU - Jones, Aragorn AU - Kim, Dong Won AU - Place, Elsie AU - Manning, Elizabeth AU - Groves, Ian AU - Sun, Changyu AU - Towers, Matthew AU - Blackshaw, Seth AU - Placzek, Marysia A2 - Knust, Elisabeth A2 - Bronner, Marianne E VL - 12 PY - 2023 DA - 2023/01/31 SP - e83133 C1 - eLife 2023;12:e83133 DO - 10.7554/eLife.83133 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.83133 AB - The tuberal hypothalamus controls life-supporting homeostatic processes, but despite its fundamental role, the cells and signalling pathways that specify this unique region of the central nervous system in embryogenesis are poorly characterised. Here, we combine experimental and bioinformatic approaches in the embryonic chick to show that the tuberal hypothalamus is progressively generated from hypothalamic floor plate-like cells. Fate-mapping studies show that a stream of tuberal progenitors develops in the anterior-ventral neural tube as a wave of neuroepithelial-derived BMP signalling sweeps from anterior to posterior through the hypothalamic floor plate. As later-specified posterior tuberal progenitors are generated, early specified anterior tuberal progenitors become progressively more distant from these BMP signals and differentiate into tuberal neurogenic cells. Gain- and loss-of-function experiments in vivo and ex vivo show that BMP signalling initiates tuberal progenitor specification, but must be eliminated for these to progress to anterior neurogenic progenitors. scRNA-Seq profiling shows that tuberal progenitors that are specified after the major period of anterior tuberal specification begin to upregulate genes that characterise radial glial cells. This study provides an integrated account of the development of the tuberal hypothalamus. KW - hypothalamus KW - BMP signalling KW - chick embryo KW - tuberal KW - floor plate KW - development JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -