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Research

The vertebrate central nervous system (CNS) arises from progenitor cells that undergo a coordinated program of cell division, fate choice and differentiation. These cells undergo a series of transitions that are driven by the interplay between extrinsic signaling pathways and changes in intrinsic factors. My research lies in understanding how these transitions are controlled at a molecular level.

Using the frog retina as a model system, we have focused primarily on understanding how the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and the transcription factor Sox2 are involved in the transition from a dividing progenitor cell to a differentiated retinal neuron or glial cell. The importance of these two molecules for normal retinal development is shown by the fact that mutations in the Wnt pathway and Sox2 have been linked to severe congenital eye abnormalities in children.

We have shown that Sox2 has essential functions within retinal progenitors including controlling the transition to a neural competance state and the initiations of proneural gene expression. We have also shown that canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling regulates the expression of Sox2. Most recently we have demonstrated that the Wnt, Sox2 and proneural genes form a powerful directional network that drives cells from a proliferative and undifferentiated state to a nonproliferative, differentiated neuronal or glial fate.

Our current focus is to better understand precisely how Wnt/β-catenin and Sox2 function within retinal progentiors to regulate retinal neuron competance and differentiation.

Selected Publications

Willardsen MI, Suli A, Pan Y, Marsh-Armstrong N, Chien CB, El-Hodiri H, Brown NL, Moore KB, Vetter ML.  Temporal regulation of Ath5 gene expression during eye development.  Dev. Biol., 326(2) (2009), 471-81.

Agathocleous M, Iordanova I, Willardsen MI, Xue Y, Vetter ML, Harris WL, Moore KB.  A directional Wnt/β-catenin-Sox2-Proneural Pathway Regulates the Transition from Proliferation to Differentiation in the Xenopus Retina. Development 136  (2009), 3289-3299.

Moore KB, Vetter M.  Retinal Development.  In Principles of Genetic Development (2007).

Lee HS, Bong YS, Moore KB, Soria K, Moody SA, Daar IO. Dishevelled mediates ephrinB1 signalling in the eye field through the planar cell polarity pathway.  Nature Cell Biology 8 (2006), 55-63.

*Van Raay TJ, Moore KB*, Iordanova I, Steele M, Jamrich M, Harris WA, Vetter ML.  Frizzled 5 signaling governs the neural potential of progenitors in the developing Xenopus retina. Neuron 46 (2005), 23-36. *contributed equally to this work

Hutcheson DA, Hanson MI, Moore KB, Le TT, Brown NL, Vetter ML. bHLH-dependent
and -independent modes of Ath5 gene regulation during retinal development.
Development 132 (2005), 829-39.

Pandur PD, Dirksen ML, Moore KB, Moody SA. Xenopus flotillin1, a novel gene highly
expressed in the dorsal nervous system. Developmental Dynamics 231 (2004), 881-7.

Moore KB, Mood K, Daar IO, Moody SA. Morphogenetic movements underlying eye field
formation require interactions between the FGF and ephrinB1 signaling pathways.
Developmental Cell 6 (2004), 55-67.

Moore KB, Schneider ML, Vetter ML. Posttranslational mechanisms control the timing of
bHLH function and regulate retinal cell fate. Neuron 34 (2002), 183-95.

Vetter ML, Moore KB. Becoming glial in the neural retina. Developmental Dynamics 221
(2001), 146-53.

Moore KB, Moody SA. Animal-vegetal asymmetries influence the earliest steps in retina
fate commitment in Xenopus. Developmental Biology 212 (1999), 25-41.

Chang JT, Esumi N, Moore K, Li Y, Zhang S, Chew C, Goodman B, Amir Rattner
A, Moody S, Stetten G, Camposchiaro P, Zack D. Cloning and characterization of a
secreted frizzled-related protein that is expressed by the retinal pigment
epithelium Human Molecular Genetics 4 (1999), 573-583.