OSCR

<i>foxQ2</i> marks fast-acting interneurons including dopaminergic neurons of <i>mushroom bodies</i> and <i>central complex</i> in the beetle <i>Tribolium castaneum</i>.

Overview

Authors: Ying Pang1, Bastian Klußmann-Fricke2, Doga Cedden1, Jiajun Zhang3, Johannes B Schinko1,4, Michalis Averof4, Thomas Dieter Riemensperger3, Gregor Bucher1
ORCID iDs: Ying Pang, Doga Cedden, Jiajun Zhang, Michalis Averof, Thomas Dieter Riemensperger, Gregor Bucher
  1. Department of Evolutionary Developmental Genetics, University of Göttingen, GZMB Göttingen Germany
  2. Abberior Instruments GmbH Göttingen Germany
  3. Institute of Zoology, Experimental Morphology and Neuroanatomy, University of Cologne Cologne Germany
  4. Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon (IGFL), École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Université Lyon 1 Lyon France
Institutions: University of Göttingen (Germany); University of Cologne (Germany); Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon (France)
Journal: eLife, volume 15, article RP111703
Dates: published online 27 October 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.7554/elife.111703 · PMID 42945321 · PMCID PMC13713031 · OpenAlex W7171939313
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: data only (how the code is found and verified)
Categories: other (organism), cellular / molecular (subfield)
Methods: Evoked potentials
Keywords: T. castaneum, brain, mushroom body, central complex, foxQ2, Other
MeSH: Dopaminergic Neurons*, Forkhead Transcription Factors*, Insect Proteins*, Interneurons*, Mushroom Bodies*, Transcription Factors*, Tribolium*, Animals, Brain (* major topic)
Journal subjects: Developmental Biology, Neuroscience
Topic: Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research (Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: China Scholarship Council (202104910052); Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (BU1443/17-1); AXA Research Fund (From Genome to Structure and Function)
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 71 references in the paper
Research resources: Anti-ChAT4B1 (4B1) (mouse, monoclonal) RRID:AB_528122, RRID:AB_528479, rabbit anti-RFP RRID:AB_945213

Abstract

The brain is one of the most complex animal organs, and the development of the many different neuron types remains enigmatic. A set of brain-specific transcription factors is involved in brain patterning, but their specific contributions mostly remain to be elucidated, including foxQ2II. This transcription factor is conserved in anterior neuroectodermal patterning of most animals, while it has been lost from vertebrates. The contribution of foxQ2II-positive neurons to the adult brain has remained enigmatic. Here, we use our enhancer trap, immunostainings, and our newly established beetle brainbow system to categorize Tc-foxQ2II-positive neurons into nine clusters with different projection patterns. All clusters contain neurons with the fast-activating neurotransmitters acetylcholine and glutamate, while no Tc-foxQ2II-positive neuron is GABA-ergic or serotonin-positive. Interestingly, we found that many dopaminergic neurons were Tc-foxQ2II positive and homologize them with dopaminergic neurons of the PPL2c, PPM1, and PPL1 cluster described in the Drosophila brain. Our results show that Tc-foxQ2II marks subsets of fast-acting interneurons contributing to the higher-order brain centers mushroom bodies and central complex. Taken together, our work expands the known functional range of foxQ2 genes from sensory and neurosecretory cell specification to interneurons involved in the function of higher-order brain centers.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper links to its data and to no code of its authors: see the Data section.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none, so it has no map.

Data

Datasets cited

Data availability

The original image stacks are available for download and further processing at Gro.data (https://doi.org/10.25625/FWBHWP) and the respective AVI formats can be viewed on Figshare (doi: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30531422).The sequence of the Brainbow construct is given in the supplementary. The transgenic stocks are kept in and are available from the Bucher lab.

The following datasets were generated:

GregorB 2026Replication Data for Pang et al. 2026 "foxQ2 marks fast-acting brain interneuronsGRO.data10.25625/FWBHWP

BucherG 2026Additional data for Pang et al. - avi files of the stacks used for the figuresfigshare10.6084/m9.figshare.30531422

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 30 October 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 8 authors, 6 keywords, 9 MeSH terms, 3 funders, 69 references, 3 RRIDs.

Cite

This paper

Pang, Y., Klußmann-Fricke, B., Cedden, D., Zhang, J., Schinko, J. B., Averof, M., Riemensperger, T. D., & Bucher, G. (2026). <i>foxQ2</i> marks fast-acting interneurons including dopaminergic neurons of <i>mushroom bodies</i> and <i>central complex</i> in the beetle <i>Tribolium castaneum</i>. eLife, 15, RP111703. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.111703

BibTeX

@article{pang2026lt,
author = {Pang, Ying and Klußmann-Fricke, Bastian and Cedden, Doga and Zhang, Jiajun and Schinko, Johannes B and Averof, Michalis and Riemensperger, Thomas Dieter and Bucher, Gregor},
title = {{\<i\>foxQ2\</i\> marks fast-acting interneurons including dopaminergic neurons of \<i\>mushroom bodies\</i\> and \<i\>central complex\</i\> in the beetle \<i\>Tribolium castaneum\</i\>}},
journal = {eLife},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
volume = {15},
pages = {RP111703},
publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd},
issn = {2050-084X},
doi = {10.7554/elife.111703},
url = {https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.111703},
pmid = {42945321},
pmcid = {PMC13713031}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Pang, Ying
AU - Klußmann-Fricke, Bastian
AU - Cedden, Doga
AU - Zhang, Jiajun
AU - Schinko, Johannes B
AU - Averof, Michalis
AU - Riemensperger, Thomas Dieter
AU - Bucher, Gregor
TI - <i>foxQ2</i> marks fast-acting interneurons including dopaminergic neurons of <i>mushroom bodies</i> and <i>central complex</i> in the beetle <i>Tribolium castaneum</i>
T2 - eLife
J2 - eLife
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/27
VL - 15
SP - RP111703
SN - 2050-084X
PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
DO - 10.7554/elife.111703
UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.111703
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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