Teneurin-2, a vertebrate homologue of the Drosophila pairrule gene ten-m/odz, is revealed to be a membrane-bound transcription regulator. In the nucleus, the intracellular domain of teneurin-2 colocalizes with promyelocytic leukemia (PML) protein in nuclear bodies implicated in transcription control. Since Drosophila ten-m acts epistatically to another pair-rule gene opa, we investigated whether gene regulation by the mammalian opa homologue zic-1 was influenced by the intracellular domain of teneurin-2. We found that zic-mediated transcription from the apolipoprotein E promoter was inhibited. Release of the intracellular domain of teneurin-2 could be stimulated by homophilic interaction of the extracellular domain, and the intracellular domain was stabilized by proteasome inhibitors. We have previously shown that teneurin-2 is expressed by neurons belonging to the same functional circuit. Therefore, we hypothesize that homophilic interaction enables neurons to identify their targets and that the release of the intracellular domain of teneurin-2 provides them with a signal to switch their gene expression program from growth towards differentiation once the proper contact has been made.

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