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5h ago

Study Finds Brain Develops From Two Distinct Progenitor Lineages

Chromatin and gene markers identify an Otx2‑positive anterior lineage and a Gbx2‑positive posterior lineage, a map the team used to grow human hindbrain motor neurons in the lab.

A Stanford-led study suggests the brain begins developing from two distinct types of early cells, challenging a long-held view of how the organ forms.

Overview

  • The Nature Neuroscience paper published Sept. 18, 2026 reports that early gastrulation-stage embryos contain two separate neural progenitors that give rise to front (forebrain/midbrain) and back (hindbrain) brain regions.
  • Researchers showed the anterior progenitors express Otx2 and the posterior progenitors express Gbx2, and chromatin profiling revealed distinct, mutually exclusive gene-access states that lock those fates early in development.
  • The same anterior/posterior split appeared across species studied — mouse, macaque, chicken, zebrafish and acorn worm — which suggests the pattern is deeply conserved over more than 550 million years.
  • Using those molecular cues, the team directed human pluripotent stem cells to make functional hindbrain motor neurons in vitro, filling a long-standing gap that has limited study of brain-stem diseases such as spinal muscular atrophy and ALS.
  • The authors note a key caveat: their methods cannot fully exclude a very brief common progenitor stage missed by sampling, and they plan follow-up work on spinal-cord origins and testing models for therapy development.