Stanford: forebrain and hindbrain arise from distinct progenitor cells

Stanford researchers studying mouse embryos found that the forebrain/midbrain and hindbrain develop from two separate populations of neural ectoderm cells, Sox2+Otx2+ and Sox2+Gbx2+. The finding explains past failures to grow hindbrain neurons from stem cells and opens the way to lab models of motor neuron diseases such as ALS. The study was published in Nature Neuroscience.

• The split occurs roughly three weeks after conception
• aNE (Sox2+Otx2+) and pNE (Sox2+Gbx2+) populations are mutually exclusive
• Researchers grew a motor neuron typical of the hindbrain
• Similar patterns were conserved in macaques, zebrafish and acorn worms