Monica Vetter, Ph.D.
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Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy (b. 1963); B.S. 1986, McGill University; Ph.D. 1994, University of California, San Francisco; Postdoctoral Fellow 1994-1996, University of California, San Francisco.
Email: Office Phone: 801-581-4984 Visit the Vetter Lab web site |
An important challenge in neurobiology is to understand how neurons are born and differentiate into specific neuronal types to form a coherent, functioning nervous system. Our laboratory is interested in exploring these events during development of the vertebrate neural retina. We are interested in several major questions: How is the early development of the eye regulated? How is retinal progenitor proliferation regulated? and How are the different retinal neuron cell types generated? We are using a variety of molecular approaches to understand which molecules are important in regulating these processes, and we are assaying the function of these molecules in both Xenopus laevis and mouse.
Basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors are important regulators of neuronal differentiation. We have identified a bHLH gene, Xath5, which regulates neurogenesis in the retina, and is specifically involved in the development of retinal ganglion cells. To understand how bHLH factors regulate retinal neuron differentiation we have been investigating how various negative regulatory pathways modulate the function of bHLH factors during retinogenesis. We have found that both the Notch pathway and components of the wnt/frizzled signaling pathway can modulate the timing of bHLH factor function during retinal development. Furthermore, we find that this regulation is critical for controlling the timing of retinal neuron differentiation.
To further explore how bHLH factors regulate the differentiation of retinal precursor cells, we are identifying transcriptional target genes whose expression is dependent upon the function of bHLH proteins, and which may be involved in subsequent stages of neuronal differentiation. In addition, we are using transgenic approaches in Xenopus embryos to identify the signals that initiate the expression of eye-specific genes during retinal development as a basis for understanding the sequence of events leading to normal nervous system development.
Finally, in order to understand how extrinsic signaling pathways regulate different stages of eye development, we are examining the role of wnt signaling. Wnt ligands bind to members of the frizzled family of transmembrane receptors. Recently, we have found that frizzled receptors can regulate several aspects of vertebrate eye development. We are currently investigating how frizzled receptors and downstream signaling components are involved in regulating proliferation and differentiation in the developing eye.?
Search Pubmed for Monica Vetter's lab publications
Selected Primary Research Publications
Burns, C.J. and Vetter, M.L. (2002) Xath5 regulates neurogenesis in the Xenopus olfactory placode. Dev. Dynamics. 225(4): 536-543.
Moore, K.B., Schneider, M.L. and Vetter, M.L. (2002) Post-translational mechanisms control the timing of bHLH function and regulate retinal cell fate. Neuron, 34: 183-195.
Schneider, M.L., Turner, D.L., and Vetter, M.L. (2001) Xath5 function in the neural plate and retina is sensitive to inhibition by Notch. Mol. Cell. Neurosci., 18:458-472.
Van Raay, T.J, Wang, Y.-K., Stark, M.R., Rasmussen, J.T., Francke, U., Vetter, M.L., and Rao, M.S. (2001) Frizzled 9 is expressed in neural precursors in the developing neural tube. Development, Genes and Evolution, 211:453-457.
Pozzoli, O., Bosetti, A., Croci, L., Consalez, G.G., and Vetter, M.L. (2001) XEbf3 functions downstream of XNeuroD during neurogenesis. Dev. Biol., 233:495-512.
Rasmussen, J, Deardorff, M., Rao, M.S., Klein, P., and Vetter, M.L. (2001) XFz3 regulates early eye determination in Xenopus. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (USA), 98:3861-3866.
Hutcheson, D.A. and Vetter, M.L. (2001) The bHLH factors Xath5 and XNeuroD can upregulate the expression of XBrn3d, a POU-homeodomain transcription factor. Dev. Biol., 232:327-338.
Brown, N. L., S. Kanekar, M. L. Vetter, P. K. Tucker, D. L. Gemza and T. Glaser. (1998) Math5 encodes a murine basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor expressed during early stages of retinal neurogenesis. Development 125:4821-4833.
Perron, M., S. Kanekar, M. L. Vetter and W. A. Harris. (1998) The genetic hierarchy of retinal development in the ciliary margin of the Xenopus eye. Dev. Biol. 199:185-200.
Kanekar, S., M. Perron, R. Dorsky, W. A. Harris, L. Y. Jan, Y. N. Jan and M. L. Vetter. (1997) Xath5 participates in a network of bHLH genes in the developing Xenopus retina. Neuron 19:981-994 (erratum published 1998, vol. 21).
Bishop, J. M., A. J. Capobianco, H. J. Doyle, R. E. Finney, M. McMahon, S. M. Robbins, M. L. Samuels and M. Vetter. (1994) Proto-oncogenes and plasticity in cell signaling. Proceedings of the Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology Vol. 59.
Selected Reviews
Vetter, M.L. and Levine E. (2002) Adult retinal stem cells. In: Adult Stem Cells (ed: Turksen, K.) Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. In press.
Hutcheson, D.A. and Vetter, M.L. (2002) Transgenic approaches to retinal development and function in Xenopus laevis. Methods, vol. 28(4), In press.
Vetter, M.L. and Brown, N.L. (2001) The role of basic helix-loop-helix genes in vertebrate retinogenesis, Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology, 12:491-498.
Vetter, M.L. and Moore, K.B. (2001) Becoming glial in the neural retina. Dev. Dynamics, 221:146-153.
