Shooting Stars

Astrocytes are star-shaped nerve cells which pepper the developing brain, destined to become parts of different brain circuits. In these slices through an early mouse’s cerebral cortex, brightly-coloured ‘brainbow’ fluorescent sensors use blends of colour to highlight pairs of ‘sister’ astrocytes – cells descended from the same parent cell. The similarly-coloured siblings on the left are pictured a day later than those in the middle and appear to have grown further apart. This may suggest that 'related' astrocytes move away and intermingle – bringing diversity to areas of the developing brain. And perhaps only at a particular time – cells at a later developmental stage (right) don't show the same patterns of separation. Understanding more about how migrating astrocytes interact with their environment may reveal clues about how the brain’s circuitry matures before and after birth.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image from work by Solène Clavreul and colleagues
• Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Institut de la Vision, Paris, France
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, October 2019