The neural plate border: multipotent progenitors or cells of mixed identity?

Abstract

The neural plate border is transient territory surrounding the anterior neural plate containing precursors for all ectodermal derivatives: the neural plate, neural crest cells, sensory placodes and the epidermis. A long-standing question is whether its resident cells are already biased to their future identity, whether they represent multipotent progenitor cells and if so, how these lineages segregate. Here, I review the studies that originally defined the neural plate border including lineage tracing, gene expression and functional data. I then discuss how recent single cell analysis has shaped the current view that neural plate border cells are multipotent progenitors as well as future directions to unravel the gene regulatory networks how neural plate border cells diversify.