Building brains: Mammalian-like neurogenesis in fruit flies
Posted in: Science Brain cells fruit flies mammalian brain
neurogenesis
A new way of generating brain cells has been uncovered in
Drosophila. The findings, published this week in the online open
access journal Neural Development, reveal that this novel mode of
neurogenesis is very similar to that seen in mammalian brains,
suggesting that key aspects of neural development could be shared by
insects and mammals.
In the widely accepted model of neurogenesis in Drosophila,
neuroblasts divide asymmetrically both to self renew and to produce a
smaller progenitor cell. This cell then divides into two daughter
cells, which receive cell fate determinants, causing them to exit the
cell cycle and differentiate.
In mammals, neural stem cells may also divide asymmetrically but can
then amplify the number of cells they produce through intermediate
progenitors, which divide symmetrically. A research team from the
University of Basel, Switzerland set out to study whether specific
Drosophila neural stem cells, neuroblasts, might increase the number
of cells generated in the larval brain via a similar mechanism.
The team used cell lineage tracing and genetic marker analysis to
show that surprisingly large neuroblast lineages are present in the
dorsomedial larval brain – a result, they say, of amplified
neuroblast proliferation mediated through intermediate progenitors.
In the novel mechanism postulated by the researchers, there are
intermediate progenitors present that divide symmetrically in terms
of morphology, but asymmetrically in molecular terms. This latter
feature means that cell fate determinants are segregated into only
one daughter cell, leaving the other free to divide several more
times, thus amplifying the number of cells generated.
The authors write: "The surprising similarities in the patterns of
neural stem and intermediate progenitor cell division in Drosophila
and mammals, suggest that amplification of brain neurogenesis in both
groups of animals may rely on evolutionarily conserved cellular and
molecular mechanisms."
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fruit-flies
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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