Article Abstract:
The central nervous sytem (CNS) in Drosophila develops from three columns of neuroectodermal cells along the dorsoventral (DV) axis. Molecular markers that can mark ventral, dorsal and intermediate colunmn neuroectoderm and neuroblasts and a cell lineage marker for certain neuroblasts can be used to show that loss of a homeobox gene, vnd, changes ventral column identity to intermediate column identity and that certain ventral neuroblasts do not form as they should. Ectopic vnd produces an intermediate to ventral column change. So, vnd is required and sufficient to bring on ventral fates and repress intermediate ones in the CNS of Drosophila.
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Article Abstract:
Three mutants showing increased brain neuroblast numbers that map to the aurora-A gene, which has encoded a conserved kinase implicated in human cancer, are identified and analyzed. The results have shown that Aurora-A and Numb in the ganglion mother cells (GMCs) are novel inhibitors of neuroblast self-renewal and that spindle orientation has regulated neuroblast self-renewal.
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Article Abstract:
A study of the regulation of neuroblast competence is presented to understand whether competence is general property or specific for the signaling pathways. The study raises the possibility that multiple competence windows may allow the same factors to generate different cell types within the same lineage.
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