Protein stress influences brain development

Sebastian Leidel and Danny Nedialkova illuminate important mechanism
Tissue section through the embryonic cortex of a mouse: The various cell types are differently stained in the section. This enables a good view on the different cortical layers.
© GIGA-Neurosciences University of Liege / Sophie Laguesse

During brain development, cells have to divide and differentiate in a very coordinated way. An international team around Laurent Nguyen (GIGA Institute of the University Liege, Belgium) and Sebastian Leidel (Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine and Groupleader in the Cells-in-Motion Cluster of Excellence, Münster) has identified an important switch that controls this process. By examining mouse mutants, they could show that the production of falsly folded proteins causes a signal that changes the differentiation of neurons. As a result, mice are born with smaller brains. This work shows that an important mechanism, which the group of Sebastian Leidel discovered in yeast and nematodes, is also effective in vertebrates. This successful international cooperation originated from a chance encounter of the scientists Danny Nedialkova and Juliette Godin at a scientific conference.