Post-transcriptional regulatory elements and spatiotemporal specification of neocortical stem cells and projection neurons

The development of the neocortex and its diverse cellular elements are regulated by the spatio-temporal progression of functional gene expression. Regulation at the transcriptional level is critical (left), however the corresponding functional protein expression depends on intricately regulated post-transcriptional steps such as splicing, localization, decay, and mRNA translation (right). Within this forefront review we discuss current knowledge on neocortical development with associated transcriptome and putative regulators of post-trancriptional regulation. In addition, we provide a transcriptome screen of a number of putative post-transcriptional regulators during neocortical neurogenesis, including RNA-binding proteins.