XB-FEAT-6458614

ascl2

This is the community wiki page for the gene ascl2 please feel free to add any information that is relevant to this gene that is not already captured elsewhere in Xenbase

tissue specificity

ascl2 (first described as xash3) can be detected as early as NF stage 11.5, in an area fated to become part of the neural plate, including presumptive brain and spinal areas . This makes ascl2 one of the earliest expressed neural-specific transcription factors in the Xenopus embryo.

Timing of expression from Zimmerman et al., 1993. ;

mid-gastrula stage (stage 11-11 ) : expression in two symmetric patches of expression lateral to the midline, and at the anterior end of each stripe, first a tangential ‘eyebrow’ like zone.

neurula stage embryos (stage 14-20): two bilaterally symmetric stripes the length of the presumptive spinal cord and terminate anteriorly within the hindbrain region. Cohybridization of late neurula embryos (stage 18) with a mixture of Krox-20 and XASH3 probes indicates that the ‘eyebrow’ stripes of XASH3 expression are located immediately anterior to the third rhombomere (r3)

late neurula stage embryos (stage 17+) : A fainter horizontal expression just anterior to the ‘eyebrow’ stripes, near the presumptive hindbrain/midbrain junction region. Diffuse staining is observed in more anterior regions of the developing nervous system with more intense signal being detected at the anterior most end of the prosencephalon, faint staining is detected in scattered cells located immediately lateral to the cephalic neural plate which may represent a subset of prospective cranial neural crest cells.

late neurula (NF stage 21) to tadpole: XASH3 expressed eye vesicle and continues to be expressed within the retinal marginal zone as late as stage 38

tailbud stage (NF stage 28); expressed in the sulcus limitans of the hindbrain, and the floorplate of the trunk-tail region of the spinal cord.

( entry by CJZ: Xenbase curator)