Abstract
The Drosophila nervous system comprises a small number of well characterized glial cell classes. The outer surface of the central nervous system (CNS) is protected by a glial derived blood-brain barrier generated by perineurial and subperineurial glia. All neural stem cells and all neurons are engulfed by cortex glial cells. The inner neuropil region, that harbors all synapses and dendrites, is covered by ensheathing glia and infiltrated by astrocyte-like glial cells. All these glial cells show a tiled organization with an often remarkable plasticity where glial cells of one cell type invade the territory of the neighboring glial cell type upon its ablation. Here, we summarize the different glial tiling patterns and based on the different modes of cell-cell contacts we hypothesize that different molecular mechanisms underlie tiling of the different glial cell types.
Highlights
There is no doubt that a complex nervous system requires a precise and reproducible arrangement of its cellular components, neurons and all non-neuronal cells
During nervous system development tiling principles first govern the regular distribution of progenitor cells such as the radial glial cells (Taverna et al, 2014)
Tiling of glial cells has been intensively documented for the mammalian nervous system
Summary
Reviewed by: Angela Giangrande, Conseil National Pour La Recherche Scientifique, France. The Drosophila nervous system comprises a small number of well characterized glial cell classes. The outer surface of the central nervous system (CNS) is protected by a glial derived blood-brain barrier generated by perineurial and subperineurial glia. All neural stem cells and all neurons are engulfed by cortex glial cells. The inner neuropil region, that harbors all synapses and dendrites, is covered by ensheathing glia and infiltrated by astrocyte-like glial cells. All these glial cells show a tiled organization with an often remarkable plasticity where glial cells of one cell type invade the territory of the neighboring glial cell type upon its ablation.
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