Towards an understanding of the role of apical polarity molecules in neural stem cells and neurogenesis.

Neurons are generated during both, embryonic development and adulthood. One hallmark of embryonic and adult neural stem cells is their apical-basal polarity, which is characterised by the apical localisation of the Par complex and adherens junctional proteins α-E- and β-catenin. Loss of α-E-catenin during embryonic cortical development induces a transient over-proliferation of the neural tissue. While β-catenin mediated Wnt signalling or classical apical molecules were ruled out as a potential cause of this phenotype, I found GSK3β to be a possible molecular key player during this event. Furthermore, the present study demonstrated the essential role of apical polarity proteins also in adult neurogenesis. Beside functional similarities of these proteins in embryonic and adult neural stem cells, my data revealed as well major differences