Lectures 3-4 (Quiz 2) Flashcards
What is neurulation and when does it occur?
Neurulation is the folding of the neural ectoderm/plate into the neural tube. It happens after neural induction (as well as post gastrulation)
What is neural tube patterning?
Subdivision of the neural tube into the distinct regions of the central nervous system, and further subdivision of each region.
What are the four main regions of the CNS?
Forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, and spinal cord?
What are the two body axis, and what does each part stand for?
The anterior-posterior (head-tail) axis, and the dorsal-ventral (back-front).
In addition to neural induction, what role does the dorsal lip play?
Organizing a correctly patterned nervous system in the neighboring ectoderm.
What happens during gastrulation?
Generation of the 3 germ layers. The dorsal lip contains migrating mesodermal (and some endodermal) cells. During gastrulation, blastomeres undergo dramatic movements wherein they change their positions relative to one another to produce three germ layers.
What are blastomeres?
Cell type produced by cell division of zygote post-fertilization.
What are the “new neighbors” that gastrulation brings (aka what are the new, more specific germ layers)?
Head mesoderm, neural ectoderm, chordamesoderm, endoderm, epidermis, and anterior endoderm
How do positional cues. help with neural tube regionalization?
Positional cues established along the embryonic body axes allow cells to choose to become different parts of the CNS.
What are the two steps/signals that lead to neural tube regionalization?
Activators instruct cells to choose neural fate. Transformer specifies different regions in a concentration-dependent manner.
What is a morphogen?
A substance whose concentration gradient drives the patterning/localization of specialized cell types within a tissue.
What are rhombomeres?
Transiently divided segments of the developing neural tube. Each develops its own set of gangllia/neurons and nerves.
How do hox genes help to define Drosophila segments?
Hox genes are a highly conserves gene family - in drosophila expressed in distinct domains along the A-P axis. Segments are made of two parasegments. Differences in hox gene expression specify paraasegment identity.
What is lineage in the context of cell differentiation?
The pattern of cell division that leads from a given precursor cell to a particular set cell types (intrinsic).
What are two ways extrinsic cell-cell signaling help to diversify cell types?
Secreted factors (eg. morphogen gradient) or direct cell-cell communication (eg. membrane bound ligand and receptor)
What are two ways intrinsic cues / lineage help to diversify cell types?
Intrinsically asymmetric cell division, and temporal regulation?
How does neurogenesis in the spinal cord work?
Neural progenitor cells divide repeatedly to produce neurons. Different types of neurons are generated along the D-V axis.
In the spinal cord, how are progenitor cells established, and what is the significance?
Patterning along D-V axis establishes distinct progenitor populations in the spinal cord. Each progenitor population generates a unique type of neuron.
What are the notochord and roof plate?
They are two distinct parts of the spinal cord that help to pattern the ventral and dorsal neural tube, respectively.
How does the notochord help pattern the ventral neural tube?
The notochord secretes the Shh protein, a morphogen whose gradient induces multiple cell types. All 6 ventral neural progenitor populations fail to form without Shh.
What is notch-delta signaling?
Lateral inhibition occurs through notch (receptor) delta (ligand) signaling. It allows only one cell to become a neural precursor from a group of equivalent cells.
What is special/unique about the notch receptor?
Though it is a transmembrane receptor, its intracellular domain is a transcription factor. Binding of delta ligands (and similar ones) to notch eventually releases NCID from the membrane, entering the nucleus to regulate gene expression.
How do numb mutants affect cell fate?
Asymmetric numb localization in dividing precursor cells allows the 2 daughter cells to adopt different fates. Numb loss and gain (symmetric distribution) cause daughter cells to adopt fate of their sibling.
how does notch play a role in cell fates of cells with numb mutants?
Notch mediated cell-cell communication is required for the two daughter cells to adopt different fates after an asymmetric cell division.
What are neuroblasts?
Neural stem cells in embryonic NSC capable of generating a series of different neural cells (called ganglion mother cells).