While the discovery that Hes1 oscillates in neural progenitors certainly adds to our understanding of neural development, questions remain about the role played by other pathway targets, which do not appear to have such feedback loops. One possibility is that oscillations in Hes1, the expression of which could be driven by multiple inputs, might provide the foundation upon which the rest of the Notch signaling system builds upon (Figure 3). Asymmetries in Hes1 expression between neighboring progenitors could become amplified, thereby leading to asymmetry in Notch ligand expression and receptor activation,

and expression of other target genes in the subset of cells that will remain undifferentiated. While more work will be needed to fully understand the importance of cycling Hes1 in neural this website progenitors, this recent advance has added an exciting new element for consideration in the study of the regulation of neural stem and progenitor cells by Notch. Investigating the interplay between signaling pathways, at the protein-protein level, the gene regulatory level, and ultimately in terms of functional outcomes, will be critical to obtaining a complete understanding of neural stem/progenitor cell regulation. Over the past several years there has

been an explosion in the number of studies examining interactions between the Notch cascade and other major signaling pathways. Though it is evident that Notch signaling crosstalks with the Wnt, Hedgehog, FGF, EGF, and BMP signaling cascades (among others) during neural development, below Selleckchem PF01367338 we specifically review interactions between Notch and JAK-STAT signaling, where the most extensive progress has been made, and Notch and the Reelin pathway, where a new and exciting interaction has recently been identified. Similar to what has been observed with

Notch signaling, activation of the JAK-STAT pathway had been shown to drive embryonic neural progenitors toward astrocyte differentiation (Miller and Gauthier, 2007), suggesting possible pathway crosstalk. JAK-STAT activation occurs when cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), and cardiotrophin (CT-1) activate the heterodimeric receptor Mephenoxalone composed of the glycoprotein gp130 and the LIFRβ coreceptor (Touw et al., 2000). That receptor complex then activates the JAKs, which in turn activate the transcriptional regulators of the STAT family. The activation of JAK-STAT signaling plays a major role in the transition from neurogenesis to gliogenesis during forebrain development, a topic that has been reviewed recently (Miller and Gauthier, 2007). The existence of interactions between Notch and JAK-STAT signaling received early support from observations that the GFAP promoter contains binding sites for both STAT3 and CBF1 (Ge et al., 2002).