Brain development: How a 'molecular compass' regulates proper cell division
It is mind-boggling t o imagine how our brain develops from just a handful of cells at the early embryo into a highly convoluted biochemical and bioelectric system comprising more than 100 billion neurons in adults. Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna have published new research in EMBO Journal , in which they reveal how cells are instructed by a small RNA molecule to shape the complex layered structures of developing mouse brains. When stem cells divide to form new tissues and organs, they have to position their cell division apparatus in a specific orientation to position their daughter cells at sites where they experience different fate cues defining their subsequent function. The newly formed cells may then go on to take a specialised function -- in the brain, for example, they can become various types of neurons to generate and transmit electrical impulses -- or stay stem cells that will keep dividing to generate more cells. Failure to ...