Retinoic acid causes changes in gene expression that are essential for development of spinal motor neurons in the chick. Rao and Sockanathan now find that glycerophosphate phosphodiesterase 2 (GDE2) shows increased expression in response to retinoic acid. In developing embryos, GDE2 was necessary and sufficient to promote differentiation of motor neurons.
M. Rao and S. Sockanathan, Transmembrane protein GDE2 induces motor neuron differentiation in vivo. Science 309, 2212-2215 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text]
