Induction of granule and Purkinje cells from primary cultured mouse cerebellar progenitors

The architecturally stereotypical structure of cerebellum is ideal for investigating the generation of neuronal diversity, but in vitro models for assessing early cerebellar progenitor differentiation were lacking. Here, we report a detailed protocol for long-term in vitro generation of Pax6(+) granule cells and Calbindin(+) Purkinje cells from common Sox2(+) embryonic cerebellar progenitors. We describe the procedure for dissecting mouse cerebellar anlage, cell seeding, and tamoxifen-induced labeling of progenitor cells, followed by time-lapse video recording of clonal expansion and neuronal differentiation. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Zhang et al. (2021).