Figure 2.

Neurogenesis in Mammals and Drosophila. (A) In mammalian neurogenesis, a ‘multi-potent’ neural stem cell (NSC) is capable of generating all the lineages in neural specific tissues. A NSC gives rise to a neural progenitor cell which in turn generates a lineage committed progenitor that can directly generate a differentiating neuron. (B) During Drosophila neurogenesis, a neuroblast (NB) divides in a stem cell like fashion to simultaneously give rise to a self-renewing daughter, as well as a smaller differentiating ganglion mother cell (GMC, shown in gray). GMCs are intermediate precursor cells that usually undergo one terminal division to generate two post-mitotic neurons (black).