Wp. Yu et al., EMBRYONIC EXPRESSION OF MYELIN GENES - EVIDENCE FOR A FOCAL SOURCE OFOLIGODENDROCYTE PRECURSORS IN THE VENTRICULAR ZONE OF THE NEUROL TUBE, Neuron, 12(6), 1994, pp. 1353-1362
2',3'-cyclic-nucleotide 3-phosphodiesterase (CNP) is an abundant prote
in of myelinating oligodendrocytes. We report that one of the alternat
ively spliced CNP mRNAs is also expressed in cultured oligodendrocyte
progenitor cells. In situ hybridization revealed a thin longitudinal c
olumn of CNP-positive cells in the ventral ventricular zone of the emb
ryonic day 14 rat spinal cord, coincident in time and space with cells
that express the platelet-derived growth factor a receptor, another p
utative marker of the oligodendrocyte lineage. These data support the
hypothesis that the oligodendrocyte lineage originates at a discrete l
ocation in the ventral ventricular zone of the embryonic day 14 rat sp
inal cord. We further report that transcripts encoding the myelin prot
eolipid protein (PLP/DM-20) are expressed in an unidentified populatio
n of neural progenitors in the ventricular zone abutting the floor pla
te. Our results support the idea that the ventricular zone is a mosaic
of specialized progenitor cells.