perspective adventures in wonderland（角度漫游奇境记》）.pdfVIP

PERSPECTIVE Adventures in Wonderland Sarah Kucenas* University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America * sk4ub@eservices.virginia.edu For the last several decades, there has been little debate over the origins of central and peripher- al glia. Central nervous system (CNS) glia, including oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, and radial glia, are specified from CNS neural precursors[ 1], whereas peripheral nervous system (PNS) glia, including Schwann cells and satellite glia, are derivatives of the neural crest [2]. However, this strict delineation of central versus peripheral glia is being challenged, and the implications could revolutionize human medicine. In the February issue of PLOS Genetics, Weider and col- leagues report that a cell population with characteristics very similar to CNS oligodendrocytes can arise from satellite glia in the periphery with only the overexpression of a single transcrip- tion factor [3]. This work, in conjunction with several other recent papers [4–7], has us not only peering through Alice’s looking glass but also crossing straight through. Glial Surprises Down the Rabbit Hole