Etv1 controls the establishment of non-overlapping motor innervation of neighboring facial muscles during development

The motor neurons innervating the muscles of facial expression are organized into somatotopic hindbrain clusters termed subnuclei. Each of the medial, intermediate, dorsolateral, and lateral subnuclei gives rise to a specific branch of the facial motor nerve (cranial nerve VII). How subnucleus-specific gene expression could mediate the accurate development of facial nerve projections was not well understood.

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Tenney AP, Livet J, Belton T, Prochazkova M, Pearson EM, Whitman MC, Kulkarni AB, Engle EC, Henderson CE