MicroRNA regulation of neural stem cells and neurogenesis.

MicroRNAs are a class of small RNA regulators that are involved in numerous cellular processes, including development, proliferation, differentiation, and plasticity. The emerging concept is that microRNAs play a central role in controlling the balance between stem cell self-renewal and fate determination by regulating the expression of stem cell regulators. This review will highlight recent advances in the regulation of neural stem cell self-renewal and neurogenesis by microRNAs. It will cover microRNA functions during the entire process of neurogenesis, from neural stem cell self-renewal and fate determination to neuronal maturation, synaptic formation, and plasticity. The interplay between microRNAs and both cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic stem cell players, including transcription factors, epigenetic regulators, and extrinsic signaling molecules will be discussed. This is a summary of the topics covered in the mini-symposium on microRNA regulation of neural stem cells and neurogenesis in SFN 2010 and is not meant to be a comprehensive review of the subject.