The role of Ldb1 on neurogenesis in mouse neocortex

Ldb1 is ubiquitously expressed, and the knockout mice are lethal before E8.5. The cell type-specific function of Ldb1 is dependent on the expression of partner proteins, LIM-domain proteins. In the case of the mouse neocortex, a previous paper proposed the role of Ldb1 in neurogenesis and a model that the complex of Ldb1 and Lmo4, one of the LIM-domain proteins, enhances transcription mediated by Neurog2 and neuronal differentiation in the neocortex. However, probably because whole-body knockout of Ldb1 is lethal before E8.5, they did not examine the role of Ldb1 in the regulation of Neurog2 and neurogenesis in the neocortex. Here, we analyzed the role of Ldb1 using our newly established method to introduce a gene of interest into the cells in E7 or E8 embryos, including neocortical cells.