Epigenetics and the timing of neuronal differentiation

• Published in: Current opinion in neurobiology Vol. 89; p. 102915
• Main Authors: Aldridge, Andrew I., West, Anne E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2024
• ISSN: 0959-4388; 1873-6882; 1873-6882
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2024.102915

Epigenetic regulation of the genome is required for cell-type differentiation during organismal development and is especially important to generate the panoply of specialized cell types that comprise the brain. Here, we review how progressive changes in the chromatin landscape, both in neural progenitors and in postmitotic neurons, orchestrate the timing of gene expression programs that underlie first neurogenesis and then functional neuronal maturation. We discuss how disease-associated mutations in chromatin regulators can change brain composition by impairing the timing of neurogenesis. Further, we highlight studies that are beginning to show how chromatin modifications are integrated at the level of chromatin architecture to coordinate changing transcriptional programs across developmental including in postmitotic neurons. •Chromatin regulators orchestrate the pace and order of gene expression programs in differentiating neurons.•Disease-associated mutations in chromatin regulators disrupt brain cell-type composition by altering timing of neurogenesis.•The epigenome is integrated at the level of chromatin architecture to coordinate gene expression programs.