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Understanding the molecular basis of a cell's differentiation capacity will greatly aid attempts to use stem cells for therapeutic purposes. In this Review, Hirabayashi and Gotoh discuss the mounting evidence implicating epigenetic mechanisms in the regulation of cell fate during neural development.

The authors show that shortening of the basal process in neural progenitor cells by depletion of TAG-1 results in overcrowding in the periventricular space and, eventually, delamination and aberrant migration. These results suggest that one of the functions of interkinetic nuclear migration is to prevent progenitor congestion and mechanical stress.

Airway-on-chip and alveolus-on-chip models using induced-pluripotent-stem-cell-derived lung progenitor cells show innate immune responses to common viruses.

The proteasome is crucial for protein degradation, and its dysfunction is linked to various pathologies. Here, the authors show that the transcription factor THAP1, the causative gene for DYT6 dystonia, is essential for proteasome activity by regulating the expression of the core β5 subunit.

Neuronal micronuclei are transferred to microglia during the early postnatal period, which leads to altered microglial morphology and transcriptomic signatures, suggesting that these micronuclei may act as mediators that control microglial characteristics.

How PDZD8 acted in Mitochondria-ER contact formation was unclear. Here, the authors show that binding to mitochondrial FKBP8 slows PDZD8’s rapid motion, enhancing contacts and mitochondrial complexity.

Adult neural stem cells are derived from an embryonic population of slowcycling progenitor cells, though how reduced cycling speed leads to establishment of the adult population has remained elusive. Here they show that non-oscillatory Notch-Hey signaling induced by slow-cycling contributes to long term maintenance of neural stem cells.

High-mobility group AT-hook (HMGA) proteins 1 and 2 are nonhistone chromatin proteins involved in different biological processes. Here the authors reveal that HMGA2 is a bona fide chromatin condensation factor that undergoes liquid–liquid phase separation, and that its chromatin condensation activity is important for the maintenance of mouse neural progenitor cells.

Here the authors reveal that oncoprotein DEK binds the nucleosome, colocalizes with H3 K27 trimethylation and stimulates Polycomb repressive complex 2 methyltransferase through chromatin compaction, as revealed by the cryo-electron microscopy structures of nucleosome-bound DEK.

NCOMMS-19-38235B Dorsal-ventral patterning of the mammalian telencephalon is fundamental to the formation of distinct functional regions. Here, the authors find that PcG proteins suppress BMP and Wnt signaling in a region-specific manner, allowing for proper Shh expression and development of the ventral telencephalon.

Neural stem cells in the adult brain maintain their pool size while producing new neurons. Kawaguchi et al.show that, during neural stem cell mitosis in the adult mouse subventricular zone, the Notch ligand Dll1 is asymmetrically segregated to one daughter cell, which undergoes differentiation.

Astrocytes in the brain are derived from neural precursor cells (NPCs). Here, Motoshi Nagao and colleagues show that the transcription repressor Zbtb20 regulates astrocyte specification in the mouse neocortex.

In this study, the authors show that neocortical neural precursor cells exhibit progressively condensed chromatin as they lose neurogenic potential during development. Furthermore, the open chromatin state of early stage progenitors is regulated by the high mobility group A (HMGA) proteins.

Several studies have suggested that astrocytes in the neocortex are more diverse than previously thought. Here, the authors describe layer-specific differences in morphology and molecular characteristics of astrocytes that depend on the neurons within those layers.

Furutachi et al. identified a slowly dividing subpopulation of embryonic progenitors that later gives rise to most adult neural stem cells (NSCs) in the subependymal zone. Moreover, they found that p57 is responsible for the slow cell cycle of this embryonic population and acts causally in the emergence of adult NSCs.

In embryonic development, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is the process whereby epithelial cells delaminate from the epithelial sheet and adopt a mesenchymal phenotype in cell motility and migration. This study shows that the Snail superfamily transcription factors Scratch 1 and 2 regulate an EMT-like process in newborn neurons derived from neuroepithelial cells in the developing mouse cortex. This process affects subsequent initiation of radial migration and ultimately neuronal cell positioning.

This study reveals a novel function of the Rho GTPase-activating protein called α2-chimerin in cortical development, where acute knockdown of α2-chimerin caused neuronal migration deficit and cortical circuit malformation in the developing mouse brain. This developmental defect was also associated with an impairment of circuit development causing epileptic discharges in adult animals.

Tangential expansion of neural stem cells in the mammalian neocortex increases the number of cortical columns. A new study shows that neural stem cells that become detached from the apical surface during division regenerate an apical endfoot to ensure tangential expansion in the early stage but later lose this ability when radial expansion occurs.

In a kinase-independent manner, PAK1 serves as a scaffold that regulates Akt recruitment to the membrane and its stimulation by PDK1, thus regulating efficiency, localization and specificity of the PDK1–Akt pathway.

Bronchial organoids (BO) and BO-derived air-liquid interface models (BO-ALI) are used to model SARS-CoV-2 infection of human bronchial epithelial cells, reporting that ciliated cells were permissive to the virus, unlike basal cells.