Abstract
The importance of producing the correct numbers ofneurons during development is illustrated by both evolutionary enhancement of cognitive capacities in larger brains, and developmental disordersof brain size. In humans, increased neuronal numbers during development is speculated to partly derive from a unique subtype of neural stem cells (NSCs) that undergo a phase of expansion through symmetric self-amplifying divisions before generating neurons. Symmetric amplification also appears to underlie adult neural stem maintenance in the mouse. However, the mechanisms regulating this behavior are unclear. We report the discovery of self-amplifying NSCs in Drosophila and show that they arise by a spatiotemporal conversion of classical self-renewingNSCs. This conversion is regulated by a temporal transition in the expression of proneural transcription factors prior to cell division.We find acausal link between stem cell self-amplification andincreased neuronal numbers. We further show that the temporal transcriptional switch controls both stem cell division and subsequent neuronal differentiation.
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