RORα coordinates thalamic and cortical maturation to instruct barrel cortex development.. Mus musculus

The retinoic acid orphan receptor alpha (RORα) is well known for its role in cerebellar development and maturation as revealed in the stagerrer (Stg) mutant mouse line. However it’s potential involvement for the development of other brain regions has not been assessed. Here we describe a new role of RORα in the development of the thalamic and cortical circuits that leads to the assembly of columnar barrel structures in the primary somatosensory cortex. Microarray analyses comparing gene expression in the thalamus and cortex of the Stg, showed a down-regulation of genes that have been involved in the control of TCA or cellular maturation of layer IV neurons. Overall, our study outlines a new role of RORα for the coordinated maturation of the thalamus and cortex during early postnatal life, and shows that it is required to initiate the transcription of genes involved in barrel formation. Overall design: Gene expression analysis of cortex and VB from control and Stagerrer mutant mice at P5-P6. Experiments were done in dye-swap with 4 biological replicates (4 litters)