developmental biology of the brain Flashcards
what is gastrulation?
the process where the single layered blastula is reorganised into a trilaminar structure called the gastrula
describe the framework for CNS development
- rapidly dividing ball of cells
- signalling centres develop
- cell mixing restricted
- cells destined to be skin or brain
once a cell is destined to be neural tissue what occurs?
- neurones are generated and they migrate to final position
- glia are produced
- synapses are generated
how many glia are there per neurones?
there are 10 times as many glia cells than neurones
once synapses are generated in the CNS what occurs?
excess neurons are culled
what occurs in the CNS throughout life?
fine tuning
new synapses are formed and neurones are tested to see whether they need to be maintained
what is the neuroectoderm?
it is ectoderm which received bone morphogenetic protein-inhibiting signals from proteins such as noggin, which leads to the development of neural tissue (and not skin)
where do the signal to the ectoderm (to become neuroectoderm) come from?
the axial mesoderm, which is ideally placed under the ectoderm for signalling
what ensure correct neural plate formation? (3)
- signals expressed in correct location
- signals that are produced have the correct cell type inducing ability
- signals expressed at the correct time
what is BMP4?
bone morphogenetic protein 4 is a pro-epidermis and anti-neutralising signal
by default all ectoderm will become skin
this needs to be blocked to form neural tissue
what signals block BMP4? (4)
- Cerberus
- chordin
- noggin
- follistatin
what is the proposed retinoic acid concentration gradients function?
anterior/posterior signalling
high concentration at the head and low at the tail
what signals need to be inhibited to make a head? (3)
- Wnt/B-catenin
- TGF
- BMP
what is the neural plate?
neutrally committed, multipotent stem cells
TF expressed are that of a broad domain, restricting cell potency
why might making a nock-out mouse for a specific TF in neuronal differentiation not make an effect?
the brain is robust, there is lots of redundancy that will compensate for the lack of TF
what TF maintain neural progenitor from differentiating?
Sox 1, 2 and 3
which sox gene is important in fate switching?
Sox2 in neural ectoderm inhibits Oct4
Oct4 drives the formation of mesoderm
what is sox2 also important for?
localisation of the stomach in the gut
Additionally, what is the function of other sox TFs?
to stop stem cell like proliferation and drive neural differentiation
along with special and temporal factors, what else effects gene expression?
gender
why are mouse embryos hard to work with?
they are hard to culture and need to be looked after
can be cultured for a few days in a bioreactor
what can be done to a chick to observe the effect of a TF on nervous system development?
electrophorese a gene into the side of embryo through a window of an egg
the other side of the embryo can be used as a control
why are in utero operations difficult?
can easily trigger a miscarriage
why are Xenopus embryos useful in developmental studies?
embryos are quite large and easy to manipulate
this means they are useful in telling us about the early stages of development
how can the same set of morphogens used in different parts of the embryo produce different tissue?
these signals are acting on cells with different TF profiles. for example, response gene for a signal may be so epigenetically repressed, from a past signal, that there is no response.
what happens if neural stem cells are triggered to leave the cell cycle too early by manipulating factors regulating the cell cycle?
brain formed is too small
what happens if neural stem cells are artificially kept in the cell cycle for too long before leaving?
lots of neurones will end up being culled
how have humans tweaked the cell cycle in the cerebral cortex over evolution?
increased proliferation before differentiation