Revealing the molecular mechanisms underlying neuronal specification and acquisition of specific functions is key to understanding how the nervous system is constructed. In the Drosophila brain, K enyon c ells (KCs) are sequentially generated to assemble the backbone of the m ushroom b ody (MB). B road-complex, t ramtrack, and b ric-ȧ-brac z inc f inger t ranscription f actors (BTBzf TFs) specify early-born KCs, whereas the essential TFs for specifying late-born KCs remain unidentified. Here, we report that Pipsqueak domain-containing TF Eip93F promotes the identity of late-born KCs by reciprocally regulating gene expression in main KC types. Moreover, Eip93F not only regulates the expression of calcium channel Ca-α1T in late-born KCs to functionally control animal behavior, but it also forms a genetic network with BTBzf TFs to specify the identities of main KC types. Our study provides crucial information linking KC-type diversification to unique function acquisition in the adult MB.
Chung et al. (Fri,) studied this question.