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Crossing the boundaries of sensory neurogenesis

Nature Neuroscience volume 7, pages 900–902 (2004)Cite this article

Boundary cap cells of the dorsal root ganglia were thought to be limited to a structural role regulating migration into or out of the neural tube. Now a study in this issue reports that they are progenitors of small-diameter nociceptive neurons.

Different subsets of neural crest cells are specified to take different migration paths and to acquire different fates. Neural crest cells immigrate into the sensory dorsal root ganglia (DRG) in two successive waves, giving rise to distinct subsets of sensory neurons1. These waves have been distinguished based on differences in their expression of neurogenic genes, but the origin of the cells that form each subset of sensory neurons has been uncertain. In this issue, Maro and colleagues show that the boundary cap cells, which are derived from neural crest and define the points at which axons pass into or out of the spinal cord, themselves give rise to a late-migrating wave of progenitors that forms neurons and glia within sensory ganglia2. This unexpected observation provides an important insight into the identity of the progenitors that generate a subset of sensory neurons, while raising new questions.

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Figure 1: Sensory neurogenesis in the dorsal root ganglion.

Erin Boyle

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Departments of Internal Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109-0934, Michigan, USA

    Jack T Mosher & Sean J Morrison

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  1. Jack T Mosher
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  2. Sean J Morrison
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Mosher, J., Morrison, S. Crossing the boundaries of sensory neurogenesis. Nat Neurosci 7, 900–902 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0904-900

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