Abstract
It has long been argued that cell cycle regulators such as cyclins, cyclin-dependent kinases and their inhibitors affect the fate of neuronal progenitor cells. Recently, we identified that cyclin D2, which localizes at the basal tip of the radial glial cell (i.e., the neural progenitor in the developing neocortex), functions to give differential cell fates to its daughter cells just after cell division. This basally biased localization is due to transportation of cyclin D2 mRNA via its unique cis-regulatory sequence and local translation into cyclin D2 protein at the basal endfoot. During division of the neural progenitor cells, cyclin D2 protein is inherited by the daughter cell that retain the basal process, resulting in asymmetric distribution of cyclin D2 protein between the two daughter cells. Cyclin D2 is similarly localized in the human fetal cortical primordium, suggesting a common mechanism for the maintenance of neural progenitors and a possible scenario in evolution of primate brains. Here we introduce our recent findings and discuss how cyclin D2 functions in mammalian brain development and evolution.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3550-3554 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Cell Cycle |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 19 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2012 Oct 1 |
Keywords
- Asymmetric cell division
- Cyclin D2
- Post-transcriptional regulation
- Radial glia
- mRNA localization
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Molecular Biology
- Developmental Biology
- Cell Biology