Nervous system development

Know the cellular and molecular basis of the development of the nervous system.
Know the animal models and the basic techniques used in Developmental Neurobiology.
Know how to use and search for information in the specialized bibliography.

CLASSROOM LECTURES

Lectures will take place face-to-face through computer videoconference tools from the classroom of the Faculty of Biology of the USC indicated in the schedule established by the center. The approximate duration of each lecture will be 3 hours and the duration of each classroom lecture will be 55 minutes.

LECTURE 1.- Generalities. Model organisms for studying nervous system development. Experimental methods for studying nervous system development. Body axes in organisms with bilateral symmetry. Cell specification, determination, induction and differentiation concept. Embryonic origin of the vertebrate nervous system. Comparative aspects of neural development in vertebrates and invertebrates. Types of neurulation. Primary neurulation in different groups of vertebrates. Secondary neurulation. Junctional zone neurulation. Neural tube closure. Neural tube closure defects. Neural induction and molecules involved. Early development of the vertebrate brain.
LECTURE 2.- Polarity and regional patterning of the central nervous system. Patterning the dorso-ventral axis of the central nervous system: Importance of adjacent tissues and molecules involved. Patterning the anteroposterior axis of the central nervous system: Importance of adjacent tissues and molecules involved. Main brain subdivisions development. Brain organizing centers. Neuromery and gene expression patterns in the hindbrain and the forebrain.
LECTURE 3.- Central nervous system histogenesis. Neural progenitors and interkinetic nuclear migration. Symmetric and asymmetric division. Asymmetric division and cellular fate. Cell migration: modes of migration and molecular mechanisms. Early neural tube histogenesis. Spinal cord histogenesis. Cerebral cortex histogenesis. Cerebellar cortex histogenesis.
LECTURE 4.- Morphogenesis in the central nervous system. Proliferation, migration, differentiation and cell death. Neurogenesis and gliogenesis. Generation of neuronal diversity. Cell adhesion and axon guidance. The growth cone. Axon guidance cues. Target selection. Synapse formation. Refinement of synaptic connections.
LECTURE 5.- The neural crest and the morphogenesis of the peripheral nervous system. Finding and evolution of the neural crest. Origin and specification of the neural crest. Regionalization of the neural crest: Trunk and cranial neural crest. Neural crest cell migration. Neural crest cell differentiation.
LECTURE 6.- Cranial placodes and sensory organs development. Cranial placodes: Similarities and differences with the neural crest. Types of cranial placodes: Origin, induction, and specification of different types of cranial placodes. Development of different types of cranial placodes and derivatives. Development of the otic placodes. Development of the olfactory placodes. Development of the eye of vertebrates: lens placodes, cornea and retina. Retino-tectal topographic mapping.


SEMINAR SESSIONS
Seminar sessions will take place face-to-face through videoconference from the classroom of the Faculty of Biology of the USC indicated in the schedule established by the center. The number of seminars will correspond to the number of students enrolled in the subject and the approximate duration of each seminar will be 30 minutes (15 minutes of presentation and 15 minutes of questions).

LABORATORY SESSION
A laboratory session will take place face-to-face on the last day established in the teaching calendar of the subject in the general laboratory 3 of the Faculty of Biology of the USC. The duration of this session will be 2 hours.
An analysis of the development of the central nervous system of vertebrates will be carried out by means of a neuroanatomical study using a bright-field optical microscope of histological slides of embryo sections.
The study of the morphogenesis of the retina will be carried out by means of observation under a bright-field optical microscope of histological slides of eye sections processed with immunohistochemical techniques using cell proliferation, migration and differentiation markers.

Barresi, Michael J.F. and Gilbert, Scott F., 2020. Developmental biology. 12th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sames, Dan H., Reh, Thomas A., Harris William A. and Landgraff, Mathias, 2019. Development of the nervous system. 4th ed. London: Academic Press.

Squire Larry R, Berg Darwin, Bloom Floyd E., du Lac Sascha, Ghosh Anirvan and Spitzer Nicholas C. eds., 2012. Fundamental Neuroscience. 4th ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Wolpert Lewis, Tickle, Cheryll and Martínez Arias, Alfonso, 2019. Principles of development. 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Students must acquire and improve the following competencies and skills such as:
- Personal commitment to learn.
- Analysis, synthetic and critical skills.
- Ability to analyze information from different sources.
- Capacity to apply theoretical knowledge into practice.

Classroom lectures. Attendance at classroom lecture will be mandatory for newly enrolled students and voluntary for repeating students. Teachers will explain lectures contents in the classroom with the support of audio-visual media and will promote the participation and intervention of the students during the course of the lecture. Teachers will use the USC virtual campus to provide students teaching material with the aim of facilitating the understanding of the contents taught in the lectures.

Seminar sessions. Carrying out and attending the seminars will be mandatory for newly enrolled students and repeating students who have not done so in previous courses. Each student must carry out a seminar on some topic related to the development of the nervous system, for which they will use recent scientific articles and reviews, and must present it in the classroom and debate it with their classmates.

Laboratory session. Attendance at laboratory session will be mandatory for newly enrolled students and repeating students who have not done it in previous courses. Each student will have a bright field optical microscope, histological slides of sections of vertebrate embryos that will be studied, and a script with the description of what they should observe in each slide.

For the two evaluation opportunities, the grade obtained by each student will be a weighted average of their performance in the parts of the subject in which their work is evaluated.

Classroom lectures. Students must pass a written exam that will represent 80% of the final grade for the subject. This exam will consist of short-answer questions and questions related to diagrams/photomicrographs included in the lectures. The exam will be carried out face-to-face in the classroom of the Faculty of Biology of the USC indicated in the schedule established by the center.

Seminar sessions. The qualification of the seminar will mean 20% of the final mark of the subject. The different aspects of the seminar (abstract, presentation and participation) will be evaluated following a rubric that will be available to students through the virtual classroom of the subject from the beginning of the course. Students must send to teachers, at least one week in advance of the seminar presentation date, an abstract stating the title of the seminar, the student´s name, a summary between 200 and 350 words maximum, five key words and the bibliography that has been used, following the instructions detailed in the evaluation rubric for this part of the subject.

In order to pass the subject at the first opportunity, regular follow-up of the course will be mandatory by attending the classroom lectures from the beginning of the semester, the delivery of the abstract of the seminar and its presentation in the classroom, attendance to the laboratory session, and doing the written exam. The maximum score that can be achieved in the subject is 10.0 points, being essential to obtain a minimum grade of 5.0 points to pass the subject. The overall grade of each student will be a sum of the score obtained in the lectures content exam (80%) and the grade of the seminar rubric (20%). The sum of both grades will only be carried out in cases in which the student reaches a grade equal to or greater than 4.8 points (out of 8.0) in the theoretical content exam.

For the second opportunity, it will be mandatory to pass the lecture content exam. The final grade for students who have followed the subject regularly during the semester will be calculated as indicated in the previous paragraph. Students who have not followed the subject regularly during the semester, and therefore have not attended the classroom lectures, nor present the seminar or attendance the laboratory session, may obtain a maximum score corresponding to 60% of the grade obtained in the lecture content exam, having to achieve a score equal to or greater than 3.0 points (out of 6.0) to have passed the subject.
For repeating students, the same evaluation system indicated above will be followed.
For cases of fraudulent completion of exercises or tests, the Normativa de avaliación do rendemento académico dos estudantes e de revisión de cualificacións of USC will be applied.

Classroom lectures: 18 h.
Seminar sessions: 9 h.
Laboratory sessions: 2 h.
Tutorials: 1 h.
Study time and individual work: 48 h.
Examinations: 3 h.

Classroom lectures and seminar sessions attendance and active participation during class work.
Studying and consulting of the bibliographic material and information received during the course to understand and deepen the knowledge acquired in the lectures.
Clarify doubts consulting the lecturers.

The subject will have a virtual classroom from the beginning of the semester on the Moodle platform of the USC virtual campus, in which lecturers will provide students with subject information (schedules, teaching guide, bibliography, news forum, etc...), and didactic materials referring to the contents taught in classroom lectures.