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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Neurochem. 2011 Aug 8;118(6):999–1007. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-4159.2011.07385.x

Figure 8. Developmental appearance of Rax, Otx2 and Crx homeobox gene expression in the rat pineal gland and establishment of pineal function.

Figure 8

Otx2 is expressed in the developing rat pineal gland with a peak at E20 (Rath et al. 2006), at which time the expression of Crx (Rath et al. 2006) and Rax (the present study) start and peak, respectively. This is consistent with the proposal that Otx2 is involved in the transactivation of Rax in the mammalian pineal gland as reported in submammalian vertebrates. Notably, Pax6 is expressed very early in pineal development (Rath et al. 2009b). Rax and Crx expression peak immediately prior to birth, at which time the genes encoding the penultimate enzymes in melatonin synthesis Aanat and Hiomt are turned on (Pfeffer and Stehle 1998; Ribelayga et al. 1998). This supports the hypothesis that Rax and Crx exert their function in concert to positively influence the development of pineal physiology.