Seq’ing the origins of cells in the developing spinal cord

In the developing central nervous system, neurogenesis precedes gliogenesis; however, when and how progenitors are specified for a neuronal versus glial fate and the temporal regulation of this process is unclear. Progenitors within the motor neuron progenitor domain in the developing spinal cord give rise to cholinergic motor neurons and cells of the oligodendroglial lineage sequentially. In a recent study, Xing et al. used single cell RNA-seq to identify previously unknown heterogeneity of these progenitors in zebrafish and to delineate the trajectories that distinct pools of these progenitors take. These data help integrate existing evidence and inform new hypotheses regarding how populations of neural progenitors in the same spatial domain commit to distinct fates.