J.Y.L. and S.B.S. designed the InSynC constructs. J.Y.L. conducted selleck inhibitor and analyzed the hippocampal microisland recordings. J.Y.L. and S.B.S. conducted and analyzed the worm movement and imaging experiments. K.Z. conducted and analyzed the electrophysiological recordings from C. elegans muscle cells. S.N. conducted and analyzed the organotypic slice experiments. R.Y.T., C.D.P., R.M., and Y.J. contributed to the design and analysis of the experiments. All authors contributed to the writing and discussion of the manuscript. ”
“In developing mammalian brains, huge numbers of neurons are generated from a relatively small number of neural progenitor cells. For this,

neural progenitors expand by symmetric division before switching to an asymmetric division mode to generate neurons (Götz and Huttner, 2005). In the developing mouse brain, neuroepithelial progenitors (NPs) span from the ventricular to the pial surface of the neural tube before the onset of neurogenesis. At around embryonic day 10.5 (E10.5), neurogenesis begins with the transformation of NPs into radial glial progenitors (RGPs), which express astroglial hallmarks such as brain lipid binding protein (BLBP), the astrocyte-specific glutamate transporter (GLAST), and Tenascin C (TN-C) (Haubensak et al., 2004, Hartfuss selleck chemicals et al., 2001, Kriegstein and Alvarez-Buylla, 2009 and Götz

and Huttner, 2005). RGPs display apical-basal polarity and bear apical and basal processes that maintain their contacts with both the ventricular and pial surfaces. However, the cell bodies of RGPs are confined to the ventricular zone (VZ) that lines the lateral wall of the ventricles. In concert with their cell-cycle state, they undergo interkinetic nuclear migration (INM) (Taverna and Huttner, 2010): RGPs go through mitosis at the apical surface of Thalidomide the VZ. During the G1-S phase of the cell cycle, they migrate basally so that S phase reproducibly occurs on the basal edge of the VZ. RGPs display two modes of cell division. They divide symmetrically and generate two daughter cells that retain RGP properties to expand the number

of neural progenitors. Alternatively, they divide asymmetrically giving rise to distinct daughter cell fates. Asymmetric RGP divisions produce either one RGP and one neuron or generate one RGP and one basal progenitor (BP, also called intermediate progenitor) (Noctor et al., 2004, Calegari et al., 2002 and Miyata et al., 2004). BPs delaminate from the VZ and form the second germinal zone, the subventricular zone (SVZ), where they divide symmetrically to generate two neurons. In some cases, they can also generate two BPs to expand the basal progenitor pool (Noctor et al., 2004 and Attardo et al., 2008). BPs emerge at E10.5 and become abundant from E13.5–E16.5, coinciding with the peak of neurogenesis (Englund et al., 2005). They are thought to be the source of most, if not all, neurons in the cortex (Sessa et al.