Abstract
ABSTRACTCell polarity is fundamentally important for understanding brain development. Here, we hypothesize that the inheritance and flexibility of cell polarity during neocortex development could be implicated in neocortical evolutionary expansion. Molecular and morphological features of cell polarity may be inherited from one type of progenitor cell to the other and finally transmitted to neurons. Furthermore, key cell types, such as basal progenitors and neurons, exhibit a highly flexible polarity. We suggest that both inheritance and flexibility of cell polarity are implicated in the amplification of basal progenitors and tangential dispersion of neurons, which are key features of the evolutionary expansion of the neocortex.
Highlights
Cell polarity is a major determinant in the development of various organs (Barnes and Polleux, 2009; Campanale et al, 2017; Namba et al, 2015; Suzuki and Ohno, 2006)
In this Hypothesis, we focus on the role of cell polarity during the development of the neocortex
We provide a unifying theoretical framework and propose that, during neocortical neurogenesis, cell polarity can be inherited between different cell types and highly flexible within specific cell types in species with an expanded and folded neocortex, such as human
Summary
Cell polarity is a major determinant in the development of various organs (Barnes and Polleux, 2009; Campanale et al, 2017; Namba et al, 2015; Suzuki and Ohno, 2006). The inheritance of cell polarity from a mother aRG has an instrumental role in maintaining a high proliferative capacity of the daughter progenitor, thereby contributing to increased neuron production (Matsuzaki and Shitamukai, 2015; Taverna et al, 2014) It has already been described in the mammalian neocortex that cell polarity can be inherited between a mother aRG and a daughter aRG (Matsuzaki and Shitamukai, 2015), we propose that cell polarity can be inherited between other progenitor types. Morphological polarity: This refers to an asymmetry in cell shape that serves as a structural basis for a function (Campanale et al, 2017) This is best reflected in the example of a neuron that contains two distinct types of processes (dendrites and axon), which enable a unidirectional and coordinated transmission of information (B, left). Flexibility in cell polarity leads to diverse morphotypes of neural progenitor cells, which may serve as a basis of their high proliferative capacity
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