ORAL PRESENTATIONS - SESSION 1

Early development of respiratory rhythm generation in mice and chicks

J Champagnat, G Fortin, S Jungbluth, V Abadie, F Chatonnet, E Dominquez-del-Toro and L Guimarães

UPR 2216 (Neurobiologie Génétique et Intégrative), IFR 2118 (Institut de Neurobiologie Alfred Fessard), CNRS, 91198, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

corresponding author email

Neural Control of Breathing
Rotorua, New Zealand, 1-4 September 2001

Respiratory Research 2001, 2(Suppl 1):1.1doi:10.1186/rr88

Published:	17 August 2001

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

Breathing in mammals starts in the foetus and acquires a vital importance at birth. The ability to produce rhythmic motor behaviours linked to respiratory function is a property of the brainstem reticular formation, which has been remarkably conserved during the evolution of vertebrates. Therefore, to understand the biological basis of the breathing behavior, we are investigating conservative developmental mechanisms orchestrating the organogenesis of the brainstem. In vertebrates, the hindbrain is one of the vesicles that appears at the anterior end of the neural tube of the embryo. Further morphogenetic subdivision ensues whereby the hindbrain neuroepithelium becomes partitioned into an iterated series of compartments called rhombomeres. The segmentation process is believed to determine neuronal fates by encoding positional information along the rostro-caudal axis. Before and at the onset of segmentation, genes encoding transcription factors such as Hox, Krox-20, kreisler, are expressed in domains corresponding to the limits of future rhombomeres. Inactivation of these genes specifically disturbs the rhombomeric pattern of the hindbrain. The presentation will address the problem of whether this primordial rhombomeric organisation influences later function of respiratory control networks in chicks and mice.