Oct-6 transcription factor.

A variety of neurological disorders may have their origin during development of the central nervous system. Defects consistent with abnormal brain development have been reported in schizophrenia. These include faulty neuronal migration,altered spatial neuronal distribution, and the absence of significant gliosis. These abnormalities in the adult are allocated to developmental processes and thus indicate a developmental basis for schizophrenia. Our way toward understanding schizophrenia pathology has been to consider the genes that regulate normal brain development. One such family of genes is the POU family of homeobox transcription factors. This chapter reviews POU domain proteins, focusing on the POU III domain gene, Oct-6, along with its potential relevance to schizophrenia.