Neuropeptides:developmental signals in placode progenitor formation

Few families of signaling factors have been implicated in the control of development. Here we identify the neuropeptides nociceptin and somatostatin, a neurotransmitter and neuroendocrine hormone, as a class of developmental signals in chick and zebrafish. We show that signals from the anterior mesendoderm are required for the formation of anterior placode progenitors with one of the signals being somatostatin. Somatostatin controls ectodermal expression of nociceptin and both peptides regulate Pax6 in lens and olfactory progenitors. Consequently, loss of somatostatin and nociceptin signaling leads to severe reduction of lens formation. Our findings not only uncover these neuropeptides as developmental signals, but also identify a long-sought-after mechanism that initiates Pax6 in placode progenitors and may explain the ancient evolutionary origin of neuropeptides, pre-dating a complex nervous system. We used progenitors for anterior and posterior sensory placodes dissected from chick embryos HH5-7; these were either processed immediately or cultured for 5 hrs to hybridise to Affymetrix chick array. We aimed to identify genes that are co regualted with Pax6, a key regulator of lens and olfactory progenitor cells. Pax6 is normally present in anterior, but not posterior placode precursors, but upregulated in both after 5 hrs culture.