Cortical development and asymmetric cell divisions

Abstract

The development of the mammalian neocortex involves rounds of symmetric and asymmetric cell division of neural progenitors to fulfill needs of both self-renewal of progenitors and production of differentiated progenies such as neurons and glia. The machinery for asymmetric cell division is evolutionarily conserved and extensively used in organogenesis and homeostasis of adult tissues. Here we summarize recent progress regarding cellular characteristics of different types of neural progenitors in mammals, highlighting how asymmetric cell division is utilized during cortical development.

Keywords

asymmetric cell division / radial glial cells / centrosome / spindle orientation

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Acknowledgments

We thank Drs. Weimin ZHONG and Daria BANCESCU at Yale University for valuable comments. Yan ZHOU is supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CBA01102 and 2012CB967000), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31171314) and Chinese 111 project (B06018).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg