Inhibitory Neuron Development Lab Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence

Publications

Publications from our group and Christian Mayer's earlier research, with short summaries of selected contributions.

Listed by year, most recent first. Selected publications are marked with an orange bar and include a short summary. Preprints, reviews, perspectives and editorials are labelled. An asterisk (*) indicates equal contribution.

Download the publication list (PDF) · Google Scholar · ORCID

2026

  1. Blackshaw S, Mayer C

    Editorial overview: Specifying cell identity, shaping tissue diversity

    Current Opinion in Genetics & Development 101, 102547 (2026) Editorial · DOI · PubMed

    Read the full text via Elsevier (author link; free access may be time-limited).

  2. Batista-Brito R, Mayer C, Paredes M, Silva CG

    Decoding Brain Development and Function Through GABAergic Inhibitory Neurons

    European Journal of Neuroscience 64, e70650 (2026) Review · DOI · PubMed

  3. Dvoretskova E*, Lynch C*, Bright AR*, Babal YK, Isaev S, Kharchenko P, Adameyko I, Mayer C

    Stoichiometric transcription factor partnerships control GABAergic neuron fate allocation

    bioRxiv (2026) Preprint · DOI

    This preprint examines how the relative levels of SP9 and DLX influence regulatory activity and the production of distinct GABAergic neuron types.

  4. Dvoretskova E, Mayer C

    GABAergic neuron fate specification and lineage allocation: from development to disorder

    Current Opinion in Genetics & Development 100, 102504 (2026) Review · DOI · PubMed

    Read the full text via Elsevier (author link; free access may be time-limited).

    This review connects gene regulation and lineage allocation to inhibitory neuron diversity. It examines how disease-associated variants can shift developmental timing and the balance of neuronal subtypes.

  5. Oikonomou P, Calvary L, Du D, Polansky J, Gattoni G, Lynch C, Shi L, Mayer C, McFaline-Figueroa J, Nerurkar NL

    An endodermal subpopulation gives rise to neuromesodermal progenitors in the posterior chick embryo

    bioRxiv (2026) Preprint · DOI

  6. Bessler N*, Wezenaar AKL*, Ariese HCR*, Honhoff C*, Dommann N, Wehrens EJ, Ruiz Moreno C, van den Broek TJM, Collot RVU, Kloosterman DJ, Keramati F, Roosen M, de Blank S, van Vliet E, Barrera Román M, Gatti LCDE, Ertürk A, Kuball J, Sebestyén Z, Kool M, Patrizi S, Miele E, Künkele A, Kranendonk MEG, Cornel AM, Nierkens S, Mayer C, Stunnenberg HG, Alemany A, Alieva M, Rios AC

    De novo H3.3K27M-altered diffuse midline glioma in human brainstem organoids to dissect GD2 CAR T cell function

    Nature Cancer 7, 316–333 (2026) · DOI · PubMed

2025

  1. Deryckere A, Choudhary S, Lynch C, Limperis LKVP, Affatato P, Woych J, Gumnit E, Ortega Gurrola A, Satija R, Mayer C, Tosches MA

    A conserved logic for the development of cortical layering in tetrapods

    bioRxiv (2025) Preprint · DOI

  2. Zhou J, Vitali I, Roig-Puiggros S, Javed A, Cantando I, Puglisi M, Bezzi P, Jabaudon D, Mayer C, Bocchi R

    Dual lineage origins contribute to neocortical astrocyte diversity

    Nature Communications 16, 6992 (2025) · DOI · PubMed

  3. Bright AR*, Kotlyarenko Y*, Neuhaus F*, Rodrigues D, Feng C, Peters C, Vitali I, Dönmez E, Myoga MH, Dvoretskova E, Mayer C

    Temporal control of progenitor competence shapes maturation in GABAergic neuron development in mice

    Nature Neuroscience 28, 1663–1675 (2025) · DOI · PubMed

    Developmental timing influenced the maturation of GABAergic neurons while progenitors retained the capacity to generate diverse neuronal identities. Chromatin regulation and NFIB contributed to these changes.

2024

  1. Adameyko I, Bakken T, Bhaduri A, Chhatbar C, Filbin MG, Gate D, Hochgerner H, Kim CN, Krull J, La Manno G, Li Q, Linnarsson S, Ma Q, Mayer C, Menon V, Nano P, Prinz M, Quake S, Walsh CA, Yang J, Bayraktar OA, Gokce O, Habib N, Konopka G, Liddelow SA, Nowakowski TJ

    Applying single-cell and single-nucleus genomics to studies of cellular heterogeneity and cell fate transitions in the nervous system

    Nature Neuroscience 27, 2278–2291 (2024) Review · DOI · PubMed

  2. Del-Valle-Anton L, Amin S, Cimino D, Neuhaus F, Dvoretskova E, Fernández V, Babal YK, Garcia-Frigola C, Prieto-Colomina A, Murcia-Ramón R, Nomura Y, Cárdenas A, Feng C, Moreno-Bravo JA, Götz M, Mayer C, Borrell V

    Multiple parallel cell lineages in the developing mammalian cerebral cortex

    Science Advances 10, eadn9998 (2024) · DOI · PubMed

  3. Dvoretskova E*, Ho MC*, Kittke V*, Neuhaus F, Vitali I, Lam DD, Delgado I, Feng C, Torres M, Winkelmann J, Mayer C

    Spatial enhancer activation influences inhibitory neuron identity during mouse embryonic development

    Nature Neuroscience 27, 862–872 (2024) · DOI · PubMed

    MEIS2 and DLX5 cooperatively activated projection-neuron enhancers, while LHX6 repressed their activity in interneuron precursors. The study introduced tCROP-seq.

2023

  1. Peters C, He S, Fermani F, Lim H, Ding W, Mayer C, Klein R

    Transcriptomics reveals amygdala neuron regulation by fasting and ghrelin thereby promoting feeding

    Science Advances 9, eadf6521 (2023) · DOI · PubMed

  2. Bandler RC, Mayer C

    Deciphering inhibitory neuron development: The paths to diversity

    Current Opinion in Neurobiology 79, 102691 (2023) Review · DOI · PubMed

2022

  1. Bandler RC*, Vitali I*, Delgado RN*, Ho MC, Dvoretskova E, Ibarra Molinas JS, Frazel PW, Mohammadkhani M, Machold R, Maedler S, Liddelow SA, Nowakowski TJ, Fishell G, Mayer C

    Single-cell delineation of lineage and genetic identity in the mouse brain

    Nature 601, 404–409 (2022) · DOI · PubMed

    The study introduced TrackerSeq to connect clonal ancestry with molecular identity. Individual progenitors produced diverse GABAergic neuron types, with divergence detectable around cell-cycle exit.

2021

  1. Dominguez S, Ma L, Yu H, Pouchelon G, Mayer C, Spyropoulos GD, Cea C, Buzsaki G, Fishell G, Khodagholy D, Gelinas JN

    A transient postnatal quiescent period precedes emergence of mature cortical dynamics

    eLife 10, e69011 (2021) · DOI · PubMed

2020

  1. Hoermann N, Schilling T, Ali AH, Serbe E, Mayer C, Borst A, Pujol-Marti J

    A combinatorial code of transcription factors specifies subtypes of visual motion-sensing neurons in Drosophila

    Development 147, dev186296 (2020) · DOI · PubMed

2018

  1. Mayer C, Fishell G

    Developing neurons are innately inclined to learn on the job

    Nature 560, 39–40 (2018) Perspective · DOI · PubMed

  2. Mayer C*, Hafemeister C*, Bandler RC*, Machold R, Batista Brito R, Jaglin X, Allaway K, Butler A, Fishell G, Satija R

    Developmental diversification of cortical inhibitory interneurons

    Nature 555, 457–462 (2018) · DOI · PubMed

    A developmental single-cell atlas traced the emergence of interneuron identities and identified MEF2C as a marker and requirement for the developing parvalbumin lineage.

  3. Hellier V*, Brock O*, Candlish M, Desroziers E, Aoki M, Mayer C, Piet R, Herbison A, Colledge WH, Prévot V, Boehm U, Bakker J

    Female sexual behavior in mice is controlled by kisspeptin neurons

    Nature Communications 9, 400 (2018) · DOI · PubMed

2017

  1. Bandler RC, Mayer C, Fishell G

    Cortical interneuron specification: the juncture of genes, time and geometry

    Current Opinion in Neurobiology 42, 17–24 (2017) Review · DOI · PubMed

2016

  1. Mayer C, Bandler RC, Fishell G

    Lineage Is a Poor Predictor of Interneuron Positioning within the Forebrain

    Neuron 92, 45–51 (2016) · DOI · PubMed

2015

  1. Mayer C, Jaglin XH, Cobbs LV, Bandler RC, Streicher C, Cepko CL, Hippenmeyer S, Fishell G

    Clonally Related Forebrain Interneurons Disperse Broadly across Both Functional Areas and Structural Boundaries

    Neuron 87, 989–998 (2015) · DOI · PubMed

    Barcoded lineage tracing showed that clonally related interneurons can disperse across distinct forebrain regions, demonstrating that shared ancestry does not imply a shared anatomical destination.

  2. Kumar D, Candlish M, Periasamy V, Avcu N, Mayer C, Boehm U

    Specialized subpopulations of kisspeptin neurons communicate with GnRH neurons in female mice

    Endocrinology 156, 32–38 (2015) · DOI · PubMed

2014

  1. Beymer M, Negrón AL, Yu G, Wu S, Mayer C, Lin RZ, Boehm U, Acosta-Martínez M

    Kisspeptin cell-specific PI3K signaling regulates hypothalamic kisspeptin expression and participates in the regulation of female fertility

    American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism 307, E969–E982 (2014) · DOI · PubMed

  2. Aziz R*, Beymer M*, Negrón AL, Newshan A, Yu G, Rosati B, McKinnon D, Fukuda M, Lin RZ, Mayer C, Boehm U, Acosta-Martínez M

    Galanin-like peptide (GALP) neurone-specific phosphoinositide 3-kinase signalling regulates GALP mRNA levels in the hypothalamus of males and luteinising hormone levels in both sexes

    Journal of Neuroendocrinology 26, 426–438 (2014) · DOI · PubMed

2012

  1. de Croft S*, Piet R*, Mayer C, Mai O, Boehm U, Herbison AE

    Spontaneous kisspeptin neuron firing in the adult mouse reveals marked sex and brain region differences but no support for a direct role in negative feedback

    Endocrinology 153, 5384–5393 (2012) · DOI · PubMed

  2. Eberhard N*, Mayer C*, Santic R, Navio RP, Wagner A, Bauer HC, Sperk G, Boehm U, Kofler B

    Distribution of alarin immunoreactivity in the mouse brain

    Journal of Molecular Neuroscience 46, 18–32 (2012) · DOI · PubMed

2011

  1. Mayer C, Boehm U

    Female reproductive maturation in the absence of kisspeptin/GPR54 signaling

    Nature Neuroscience 14, 704–710 (2011) · DOI · PubMed

2010

  1. Mayer C*, Acosta-Martinez M*, Dubois SL, Wolfe A, Radovick S, Boehm U, Levine JE

    Timing and completion of puberty in female mice depend on estrogen receptor alpha-signaling in kisspeptin neurons

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107, 22693–22698 (2010) · DOI · PubMed

Collaborative applications of our methods

We contribute lineage-tracing methods and, in some collaborations, computational analysis to studies led by other groups. Applications include cortical astrocyte diversity, lineages in the developing ferret cortex, cortical layering in salamander (preprint), neuromesodermal progenitors in the chick embryo (preprint), and a human brainstem organoid model of diffuse midline glioma.