Table 1.

The genes, proteins and markers involved in the cellular differentiation process in vitro.

Genes/Proteins/Markers	Functions
Tlx3 (HOX11L2)	Promotes the differentiation of glutamatergic neurons in the central nervous system [13,15].
Pax6	Plays a very early role in the specification of retinal neurons and in the developing cortex [14].
TAF4	Is a subunit in TFIID and has been shown to play roles in embryogenesis [16].
Brn2 (Pou3f2)	Brn2 and Brn2–Zic1 axis are important in neuronal differentiation induced by retinoic acid [17,18,19].
P2Y4	Extracellular nucleotides can mediate this nucleotide receptor to induce glutamatergic markers [20].
Ngn2	Is a helix–loop–helix TF and is sufficient to induce the differentiation of ESCs into glutamatergic neurons [21].
E30012A19Rik	One of the master regulators of gene expression for ESCs to differentiate into glutamatergic neurons [22].
miRNAs	miR-200 family and miR-17-92 cluster members are relevant in the neuronal differentiation of ESCs [23].

Tlx3, T-cell leukemia homeobox protein 3; Pax 6, Paired box 6; TAF4, TATA-binding protein-associated factor 4; Brn2/Pou3f2, pou domain class 3 transcription factor 2; Ngn2, Neurogenin 2.