Gene regulatory logic of dopaminergic neuron differentiation

Dopamine signaling regulates a variety of complex behaviors and defects in dopaminergic neuron function or survival result in severe human pathologies, such as Parkinson's disease 1. The common denominator of all dopaminergic neurons is the expression of dopamine pathway genes, which code for a set of phylogenetically conserved proteins involved in dopamine synthesis and transport. Gene regulatory mechanisms that result in the activation of dopamine pathway genes and thereby ultimately determine the identity of dopaminergic neurons are poorly understood in any system studied to date 2. We show here that a simple cis-regulatory element, the DA motif, controls the expression of all dopamine pathway genes in all dopaminergic cell types in C. elegans. The DA motif is activated by the ETS transcription factor, AST-1. Loss of ast-1 results in the failure of all distinct dopaminergic neuronal subtypes to terminally differentiate. Ectopic expression of ast-1 is sufficient to activate the dopamine production pathway in some cellular contexts. Vertebrate dopaminergic pathway genes also contain phylogenetically conserved DA motifs that can be activated by the mouse ETS transcription factor Etv1/ER81 and a specific class of dopaminergic neurons fails to differentiate in mice lacking Etv1/ER81. Moreover, ectopic Etv1/ER81 expression induces dopaminergic fate marker expression in neuronal primary cultures. Mouse Etv1/ER81 can also functionally substitute for ast-1 in C.elegans. Our studies reveal an astoundingly simple and apparently conserved regulatory logic of dopaminergic neuron terminal differentiation and may provide new entry points into the diagnosis or therapy of conditions in which dopamine neurons are defective.