ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neuroanat.
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnana.2025.1677413
This article is part of the Research TopicReviews in Neuroanatomy: 2024-2025View all 5 articles
Developmental and adult expression of the Meis2 transcription factor in the Central Nervous System of Xenopus laevis: A developmental and Evolutive analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
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Meis2 is a TALE-class transcription factor involved in key neurodevelopmental processes such as neuronal differentiation and brain regionalization. Its expression is well documented in amniotes and teleosts, but its distribution in the developing brain of anamniote tetrapods remains poorly understood. Thus, the distribution of Meis2-immunoreactive (-ir) cells was analyzed throughout the developmental stages of the Xenopus laevis brain, revealing a dynamic, stage-specific expression pattern. From early embryonic stages, Meis2-ir cells were found in the telencephalon, specifically in the ventrolateral pallium and subpallium; the diencephalon, particularly in the prosomere 3 and transiently in p2 and in the habenula; the optic tectum; the mesencephalic tegmentum; and the rhombencephalon. During the premetamorphic stages, Meis2 expression extended rostrally in the olfactory bulb and to subpallial derivatives, including scattered cells in the amygdaloid region. It was present in the alar and basal hypothalamus. During the metamorphic climax and juvenile phases, Meis2-ir expression became clearly defined in specific mature nuclei, specifically in the ventral pallium, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, septal nuclei, supraparaventricular and mammillary hypothalamus, and prethalamic nuclei. In addition, from metamorphic climax stages Meis2 occupied a number of tectal layers and is seen in the cerebellar nucleus. The most prominent and constant expression was observed in the rhombencephalon, particularly in areas surrounding the isthmus and the reticular formation. This expression extended from rostral rhombomeres (r1-r3) caudally into the lateral line system and raphe nuclei. These results highlight the conserved, temporally regulated role of Meis2 in regional specification and maturation of the central nervous system, and evidenced particularities related to cell specification.
Keywords: pallium, Amygdala, Hypothalamus, optic tectum, Rhombencephalon, patterning, Brainevolution
Received: 31 Jul 2025; Accepted: 08 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Morona, Martinez and Moreno. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ruth Morona, r.morona@bio.ucm.es
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