QBI Neuroscience Seminar: Neogenin controls neural stem cell structure and function.

Event Details

Date:

Wednesday, 25 July 2012

Time:

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Room:

Auditorium Level 7

UQ Location:

Queensland Brain Institute (St Lucia)

URL:

http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/group-leader-cooper

Event category(s):

Full Description:: Speaker: Associate Professor Helen Cooper
Neural Migration, Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland

Title: Neogenin controls neural stem cell structure and function.

Abstract: The earliest neural structure in the vertebrate embryo is the neural tube, comprising a highly organized pseudostratified neuroepithelium (NEP) surrounding a central lumen. These cells are polarized with their apical membrane attached to the ventricular (luminal) surface. NEP cells and their descendants, the radial glial progenitors, are the stem cells that give rise directly or indirectly to all neurons in the CNS. These progenitors divide symmetrically producing two new progenitors or asymmetrically generating one progenitor and one neuron. A strict requirement for these modes of division is that the apicobasal polarity of the progenitor be maintained. Studies in our laboratory have demonstrated that loss of the netrin/RGM receptor, Neogenin, severely perturbs NEP morphology in both Xenopus and zebrafish embryos. In these mutants polarization of the NEP fails to occur, leading to defects in neural tube formation and widespread loss of neuronal production throughout the CNS. Our investigation of Neogenin function in the developing mouse cortex shows that Neogenin also regulates radial progenitor structure and function within the cortical stem cell niche. In this seminar I will discuss the mechanism by which Neogenin establishes and maintains a polarized NEP.