neuroblast vs. neuronal progenitor

[David Hill]

I am also a bit uneasy about this. One of the things I wanted to do at 
the neuro interest group meeting is bring up this issue. For example, a 
radial glial cell could be considered a neuroblast bacause it gives rise 
to neurons. They also give rise to astrocytes, so they could be 
considered glioblasts. In this case, after the asymmetric division of a 
radial glial cell, one of the daughter cells is postmitotic, committed 
to becoming a neuron  and migrates. It seems like these cells are what 
people refer to when they are talking about neuuronal precursors in the 
forebrain. So the issue in my mind is, are these just immature neurons? 
I think we need to ask the neuro experts who are coming to the meeting.


David

Nicolas Le Novère wrote:

>I am not entirely sure about that (mostly because I'm writting that
>looking at telly during an advert break in the middle of Farenheit 9/11.
>Pretty hard to concentrate on anything else), but I think neuroblasts are
>definitely progenitors of both neurons AND glial cells. I.e. neuronal
>precursors form a paraontogenic group (based on paraphyletic). I am almost
>sure of that for Bergman glia.
>
>  
>
>>Would everyone agree if I were to suggest that all GO terms that have
>>"neuroblast" in the term name also have an exact synonym using the term
>>"neuronal progenitor"?
>>
>>Eg.
>>"neuroblast differentiation" would get an exact synonym of "neuronal
>>progenitor differentiation".
>>
>>Likewise, I would like to suggest a new term on SourceForge for
>>"glioblast differentiation" with the exactly synonym "glial progenitor
>>differentiation".
>>
>>I realize that sometimes a single cells can pass through a stage during
>>which it is a progenitor capable of generating neurons and glia in some
>>cases..but I think this is OK..maybe we could even have a term like
>>"neuro-glial progenitor differentiation" to represent differentiation of
>>this type of cell?
>>
>>What do you think?
>>
>>-Doug
>>
>>    
>>
>
>
>  
>


-- 
David P. Hill, Ph.D.
Senior Scientific Curator
Mouse Genome Informatics
Gene Ontology Consortium
The Jackson Laboratory
600 Main Street
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htpp://www.informatics.jax.org
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