Generation of excitatory and inhibitory neurons from common progenitors via Notch signaling in the cerebellum

Abstract

SUMMARYBrain neurons arise from relatively few progenitors capable of giving rise to an enormous diversity of neuronal types. Nonetheless, a cardinal feature of mammalian brain neurogenesis in both the cortex and the cerebellum is that excitatory neurons and inhibitory neurons derive from separate, spatially segregated, progenitors. Whether bi-potential progenitors with an intrinsic capacity to generate both excitatory and inhibitory lineages exist and how such a fate decision may be regulated is unknown. Using cerebellar development as a model, we discover that individual embryonic cerebellar progenitors give rise to both inhibitory and excitatory lineages. We find that gradations of Notch activity levels determine the fates of the progenitors and their daughters. Daughters with the highest levels of Notch activity retain the progenitor fate. Daughters with intermediate levels of Notch activity become fate restricted to generate inhibitory neurons, while daughters with very low levels of Notch signaling adopt the excitatory fate. Therefore, Notch mediated binary cell fate choice is a mechanism for regulating the ratio of excitatory to inhibitory neurons from common progenitors.Graphical summary