By expressing different molecules-termed temporal transcription factors, or tTFs-that regulate the expression of specific genes in each window of time, neural stem cells produce different neurons. The mechanism by which neural stem cells produce different neurons over time is called temporal patterning. In both vertebrates, like mice and humans, and invertebrates, like flies, different types of neurons are generated sequentially as the brain develops, with specific types of neurons being generated first and other types being generated later from the same progenitor stem cell. “Knowing how the human brain develops could allow us in the future to repeat these developmental processes in the lab to generate specific types of neurons in a Petri dish-and potentially transplant them in patients-or to trigger neuronal stem cells in living organisms to generate and replace missing neurons,” said Claude Desplan, Silver Professor of Biology at NYU and the study’s senior author.īecause studying the human brain is an incredibly complex endeavor, researchers rely on model organisms, such as mice and flies, to explore the intricate mechanisms involved in the brain’s processes. While scientists have identified many types of neurons, how this complexity arises during the brain’s development is a central question for developmental neurobiology and regenerative medicine. This complexity allows the brain to perform its many functions, from controlling speech and vision to storing memories and generating emotions.
These nerve cells differ in their form, function, and connectivity with other neurons to form neural networks. The human brain is composed of 80 billion neurons. The findings, published in Nature, open new avenues of research to understand how brain development evolved in different animals and hold clues for regenerative medicine. Researchers have identified the complete series of 10 factors that regulate the development of brain cell types in the visual system of fruit flies-including in what order these neurons develop.
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