The Germinal Cell and Histogenesis of the Nervous System

Abstract

One of the most enduring concepts of developmental neurobiology is that of the germinal cells situated in well-defined germinal zones located in characteristic places in the developing nervous system. Identification of these specialized cells, from which all neurons originate, was made almost a century ago, and hundreds of publications have appeared dealing with their identification and location and with many aspects of their proliferation. Nevertheless, we still do not know how the different types of neurons and glia are generated from the apparently homogeneous population of germinal cells, and how their proliferation is controlled so as to produce the correct numbers of different cells in each part of the nervous system.