Neurogenin-2 Explained

Neurogenin-2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the NEUROG2 gene.^[1]

Neurogenin-2 is a member of the neurogenin subfamily of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor genes that play an important role in neurogenesis.^[2]

It has been found to reprogram astrocytes to glutamergic neurons when expressed.^[3]

Further reading

• Gradwohl G, Fode C, Guillemot F . Restricted expression of a novel murine atonal-related bHLH protein in undifferentiated neural precursors . Developmental Biology . 180 . 1 . 227–241 . November 1996 . 8948587 . 10.1006/dbio.1996.0297 . free .
• Simmons AD, Horton S, Abney AL, Johnson JE . Neurogenin2 expression in ventral and dorsal spinal neural tube progenitor cells is regulated by distinct enhancers . Developmental Biology . 229 . 2 . 327–339 . January 2001 . 11203697 . 10.1006/dbio.2000.9984 . free .
• Kumar M, Bagchi B, Gupta SK, Meena AS, Gressens P, Mani S . Neurospheres derived from human embryoid bodies treated with retinoic Acid show an increase in nestin and ngn2 expression that correlates with the proportion of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive cells . Stem Cells and Development . 16 . 4 . 667–681 . August 2007 . 17784840 . 10.1089/scd.2006.0115 .
• Deng S, Deng H, Le W, Xu H, Yang H, Deng X, Lv H, Xie W, Zhu S, Jankovic J . Genetic analysis of the NEUROG2 gene in patients with Parkinson's disease . Neuroscience Letters . 468 . 3 . 195–197 . January 2010 . 19879328 . 10.1016/j.neulet.2009.10.078 . 27698762 .
• Park CH, Kang JS, Yoon EH, Shim JW, Suh-Kim H, Lee SH . Proneural bHLH neurogenin 2 differentially regulates Nurr1-induced dopamine neuron differentiation in rat and mouse neural precursor cells in vitro . FEBS Letters . 582 . 5 . 537–542 . March 2008 . 18242186 . 10.1016/j.febslet.2008.01.018 . 33390799 . 2008FEBSL.582..537P .
• Fode C, Gradwohl G, Morin X, Dierich A, LeMeur M, Goridis C, Guillemot F . The bHLH protein NEUROGENIN 2 is a determination factor for epibranchial placode-derived sensory neurons . Neuron . 20 . 3 . 483–494 . March 1998 . 9539123 . 10.1016/S0896-6273(00)80989-7 . 16790307 . free .

Notes and References

1. Web site: Entrez Gene: neurogenin 2.
2. Heng JI, Nguyen L, Castro DS, Zimmer C, Wildner H, Armant O, Skowronska-Krawczyk D, Bedogni F, Matter JM, Hevner R, Guillemot F . Neurogenin 2 controls cortical neuron migration through regulation of Rnd2 . Nature . 455 . 7209 . 114–118 . September 2008 . 18690213 . 10.1038/nature07198 . 2813030 . 2008Natur.455..114H .
3. Liu F, Zhang Y, Chen F, Yuan J, Li S, Han S, Lu D, Geng J, Rao Z, Sun L, Xu J, Shi Y, Wang X, Liu Y . Neurog2 directly converts astrocytes into functional neurons in midbrain and spinal cord . Cell Death & Disease . 12 . 3 . 225 . March 2021 . 33649354 . 7921562 . 10.1038/s41419-021-03498-x .