The precision with which motor neurons innervate target muscles depends on a regulatory network of Hox transcription factors that translates neuronal identity into patterns of connectivity. We show that a single transcription factor, FoxP1, coordinates motor neuron subtype identity and connectivity through its activity as a Hox accessory factor. FoxP1 is expressed in Hox-sensitive motor columns and acts as a dose-dependent determinant of columnar fate. Inactivation of Foxp1 abolishes the output of the motor neuron Hox network, reverting the spinal motor system to an ancestral state. The loss of FoxP1 also changes the pattern of motor neuron connectivity, and in the limb motor axons appear to select their trajectories and muscle targets at random. Our findings show that FoxP1 is a crucial determinant of motor neuron diversification and connectivity, and clarify how this Hox regulatory network controls the formation of a topographic neural map.

The contribution of changes in cis-regulatory elements or trans-acting factors to interspecies differences in gene expression is not well understood. The mammalian β-globin loci have served as a paradigm for gene regulation during development. Transgenic mice harboring the human β-globin locus, consisting of the linked embryonic (ε), fetal (γ) and adult (β) genes, have been used as a model system to study the temporal switch from fetal to adult hemoglobin, as occurs in humans. We show that the human γ-globin genes in these mice behave as murine embryonic globin genes, revealing a limitation of the model and demonstrating that critical differences in the trans-acting milieu have arisen during mammalian evolution. We show that the expression of BCL11A, a repressor of human γ-globin expression identified through genome-wide association studies, differs between mouse and human. Developmental silencing of the mouse embryonic globin and human γ-globin genes fails to occur in mice in the absence of BCL11A. Thus, BCL11A is a critical mediator of species-divergent globin switching. By comparing the ontogeny of β-globin gene regulation in mice and humans, we have shown that alterations in expression of a trans-acting factor constitute a critical driver of gene expression changes during evolution.

B lymphocyte-restricted transcription of immunoglobulin heavy-chain (IgH) genes is specified by elements within the variable region (Va) promoter and the intronic enhancer (EIX). The gene encoding a protein that binds a VH promoter proximal site necessary for induced ix-heavy-chain transcription has been cloned. This B-cell specific protein, termed Bright (B cell regulator of IgH transcription), is found in both soluble and matrix insoluble nuclear fractions. Bright binds the minor groove of a restricted ATC sequence that is sufficient for nuclear matrix association. This sequence motif is present in previously described matrix-associating regions (MARs) proximal to the promoter and flanking EIX. Bright can activate Ela-driven transcription by binding these sites, but only when they occur in their natural context and in cell lines permissive for E~ activity. To bind DNA, Bright requires a novel tetramerization domain and a previously undescribed domain that shares identity with several proteins, including SWI1, a component of the SWI/SNF complex.

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Forkhead transcription factors are key participants in development and immune regulation. Here we demonstrate that absence of the gene encoding the forkhead transcription factor Foxp1 resulted in a profound defect in early B cell development. Foxp1 deficiency was associated with decreased expression of all B lineage genes in B220+ fetal liver cells as well as with a block in the transition from pro-B cell to pre-B cell involving diminished expression of recombination-activating genes 1 and 2. Foxp1 bound to the Erag enhancer and was involved in controlling variable-(diversity)-joining recombination of the gene encoding immunoglobulin heavy chain in a B cell lineage-specific way. Our results identify Foxp1 as an essential participant in the transcriptional regulatory network of B lymphopoiesis.