Abstract
Radial Glial progenitors in the mammalian developing neocortex follow a deterministic differentiation program restricted to an asymmetric only mode of division. This contrast with many other developmental systems, such as the developing spinal cord, the retina, epidermis, airway epithelium, germline, and the intestine, where the fate at the single cell level is unpredictable, and differentiation takes place based on probabilities that can change overtime. Here, we combine experimental, computational and theoretical tools to show that Radial Glial cultured in vitro also divide symmetrically, and that the balance between different modes of division can be modulated by external signals, such as Fibroblast Growth Factor. Our results suggest that the constraint of deterministic and asymmetric mode of division of Radial Glial is not an inherent property of this particular cell type, but a feature induced by the complex organized pseudo-stratified structure of the mammalian developing neocortex.