Editorial: progenitor diversity and neural cell specification in the central nervous system

• Autor(a) principal: Rouaux, Caroline
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Hedin-Pereira, Cecília, Costa, Marcos Romualdo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRN
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.ufrn.br/jspui/handle/123456789/23124
• topic: central nervous system; cellular diversity; progenitor cells; neurons; glial cells; fate specification

The central nervous system (CNS) harbors an enormous diversity of neuronal and glial cell types, which can be identified according to morphological, chemical, and electrical properties. This variety of cell types is generated from progenitor cells located in different germinative niches, where distinct molecular signalings prompt distinctive transcription factors expression. In the last two decades, it has been acknowledged that such progenitor diversity is important for the generation of different subtypes of neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Genetic fate-mapping studies have provided direct evidence for the contribution of separate cohorts of progenitor cells to generate individual subtypes of neurons and/or glial cells. Additionally, genetic deletions of single transcription factors and forced expression of ectopic transcription factor genes have pointed out the leading role of such molecules on the specification of different, individual cell types. However, other sources of data indicate that the environment plays important roles in cellular specification during CNS development, eventually overriding the influence of early transcription factors expression. These observations suggest that genetic determinants for both neuronal and glial specification would be changeable. However, the time-window during which neuronal and glial lineage genetic programs could be overwritten by external signals remains to be determined, along with exact signals that could perform such a fate modification. This research topic gathers a number of articles highlighting the role of a wide panel of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that contribute to the generation of such diversity.