FBS Colloquia No.238Laboratory for embryogenesis

Gene expression dynamics regulating the timing of neuronal differentiation

The process of neural development is strictly regulated. At first, neural progenitor cells proliferate and expand the number, and then they start to give rise to neurons. For the production of the precise number of neurons and glial cells, the regulation of the timing of differentiation is important. But the molecular mechanism regulating the timing of cell fate determination has still largely unknown. We found that many genes regulating the maintenance of neural progenitor cells and neuronal differentiation showed various dynamic expression in neural progenitor cells. And we revealed that these dynamics of gene expression regulates the timing of neuronal differentiation.