UCLA Neuroscience Program Ph.D. Admissions Neuroscience Faculty UCLA and Beyond  



Ellen Carpenter
Transcription Regulators in Nervous System Development

Email Address:  ecarpenter@mednet.ucla.edu

Laboratory Address:
635 Charles E Young Drive South
Office Address:
635 Charles E Young Drive South
Phone Numbers:
310-206-3404 Office
310-267-2105 Laboratory

Selected Publications:

Choe, A., Phun, H. Q., Tieu, D. D., Hy, Y. H., and Carpenter, E. M. Expression patterns of Hox10 paralogous genes during lumbar spinal cord development. Gene Expression Patterns. 2006; 7: 730-737.
Hedlund, E., Karsten, S. L., Kudo, L., Geschwind, D. H., and Carpenter, E. M. Identification of a Hoxd10-regulated transcriptional network and combinatorial interactions with Hoxa10 during spinal cord development. Journal of Neuroscience Research. 2004; 75: 307-319.
Carpenter, EM Hox genes and spinal cord development.. Developmental Neuroscience. . 2002; 24(1): 24-34.
Anderson, TR Hedlund, E Carpenter, EM Differential Pax6 promoter activity and transcript expression during forebrain development.. Mechanisms of Development. . 2002; 114(1-2): 171-5.
Wahba, GM Hostikka, SL Carpenter, EM The paralogous Hox genes Hoxa10 and Hoxd10 interact to pattern the mouse hindlimb peripheral nervous system and skeleton.. Developmental Biology. . 2001; 231(1): 87-102.
de la Cruz, CC Der-Avakian, A Spyropoulos, DD Tieu, DD Carpenter, EM Targeted disruption of Hoxd9 and Hoxd10 alters locomotor behavior, vertebral identity, and peripheral nervous system development.. Developmental Biology. . 1999; 216(2): 595-610.
Carpenter, EM Goddard, JM Davis, AP Nguyen, TP Capecchi, MR Targeted disruption of Hoxd-10 affects mouse hindlimb development.. Development (Cambridge, England) . 1997; 124(22): 4505-14.
Carpenter, EM Goddard, JM Chisaka, O Manley, NR Capecchi, MR Loss of Hox-A1 (Hox-1.6) function results in the reorganization of the murine hindbrain.. Development (Cambridge, England) . 1993; 118(4): 1063-75.
Research Interest:

My laboratory studies the effects of transcription regulators on early nervous system patterning and development. Our present studies are focussed on Hox genes and their role in patterning the developing spinal cord. Hox genes encode transcription factors that are expressed in broad anteroposterior domains in developing vertebrate embryos. Inactivation of different members of the Hox gene family suggests that these genes are active in embryonic patterning with roles in both the nervous system and in surrounding tissues and limbs. We have defined the anatomical phenotypes for mice carrying mutations in several individual Hox genes and are currently breeding and analyzing mice carrying multiple mutations. Our studies have demonstrated that motor neuron position and projection is specifically affected by Hox gene mutations both individually and in combination. We are currently examining precursor cell populations to establish the developmental timepoint at which these changes occur. We are also examining downstream targets of Hox gene activity using microarray screening. We have recently identified a set of approximately 70 genes that are differentially expressed in the nervous system following mutation of the Hoxd10 gene. RT-PCR studies have demonstrated that some of these genes show additional changes in expression in Hoxa10/Hoxd10 double mutant animals, suggesting that several Hox genes may regulate the same downstream target genes. Our studies have also revealed several novel genes that appear to be regulated by Hoxd10. We will further characterize these differentially expressed genes using in situ hybridization and real-time PCR analysis. We are also currently defining the promoter elements that may be required for Hoxd10 regulation of downstream genes.