Zona Limitans Intrathalamica - Developmental Boundaries

Developmental Boundaries

During development in both vertebrates and invertebrates, cell lineage restriction boundaries and signaling centers are formed in order to ensure proper differentiation of the body. Chemical signals, like shh from the ZLI, are often released from these boundaries and compartments in a concentration gradient (the chemicals are in much higher concentrations closer to the source) and confer identity to flanking regions. Other genes differentially expressed in these flanking regions aid in ensuring proper differentiation (see Signaling).

Many developmental boundaries have been studied: within the forebrain alone, the confirmed cell lineage restriction boundaries are the pallial-subpallial boundary (PSB) dividing the dorsal and ventral telencephalon, the diencephalon-midbrain boundary (DMB) posterior to the ZLI, and the ZLI. The ZLI, like each rhombomere, serves as an independent compartment that confers the identity of diencephalon in anterior and posterior regions. Other developmental boundaries serve as cell-lineage restriction boundaries but not signaling centers, while others are signaling centers to and from which cells can migrate. Despite discoveries of cell lineage restriction boundaries and compartments in the brain, many of the regions studied have been disproven as segmental boundaries. These areas have potential as signaling centers, which have influence over the development of neighboring tissues.

These boundaries have great influence over other regions of the brain: the placement of the ZLI not only affects the size of adjacent regions but also the size of the telencephalon. A posterior shift in the ZLI allows more cells to be allocated to the telencephalon. The same is true for other developmental boundaries in the brain and throughout the body: shifts in boundaries responsible for allocating a certain amount of tissue to a certain function result in drastic changes in the adult structure. These boundaries are of crucial importance for proper differentiation.