Green MJ, Wingate RJ (2014)
Developmental origins of diversity in cerebellar output nuclei.Neural Dev 9: 1
Our results confirm the relationship between cell fate and a fine grain temporal patterning at the rhombic lip. This suggests that the lack of a cerebellar output to the dorsal thalamus of birds corresponds with a restricted expression of the LIM-homeodomain gene Lhx9 to earlier born rhombic lip cohorts when compared to mice. The evolution of cerebellar nucleus diversity in amniotes may hence reflect a heterochronic adaptation of gene expression with respect to the sequential production of rhombic lip derivatives resulting in altered axonal targeting.