Programming of neural progenitors of the adult subependymal zone towards a glutamatergic neuron lineage by neurogenin 2.

Although adult subependymal zone (SEZ) neural stem cells mostly generate GABAergic interneurons, a small progenitor population expresses the proneural gene Neurog2 and produces glutamatergic neurons. Here, we determined whether Neurog2 could respecify SEZ neural stem cells and their progeny toward a glutamatergic fate. Retrovirus-mediated expression of Neurog2 induced the glutamatergic lineage markers TBR2 and TBR1 in cultured SEZ progenitors, which differentiated into functional glutamatergic neurons.