A Niche-Defying Feat: Induced Oligoneogenesis in the Adult Dentate Gyrus

Summary In a recent paper in Nature Neuroscience , Jessberger et al. (2008) report that overexpression of ASCL1 (mash1) directs adult hippocampal progenitors to adopt an oligodendrocytic fate. The effect is specific to the hippocampal niche in vivo, indicating that cell-autonomous and niche-defined factors collaborate to instruct cell fate choices.