The vertebrate retina is regarded as a simple part of the central nervous system (CNS) and thus amenable to investigations of the determinants of cell fate. Its five neuronal cell classes and one glial cell class all derive from a common pool of progenitors. Here we review how each cell class is generated. Retinal progenitors progress through different competence states, in each of which they generate only a small repertoire of cell classes. The intrinsic state of the progenitor is determined by the complement of transcription factors it expresses. Thus, although progenitors are multipotent, there is a bias in the types of fates they generate during any particular time window. Overlying these competence states are stochastic mechanisms that influence fate decisions. These mechanisms are determined by a weighted set of probabilities based on the abundance of a cell class in the retina. Deterministic mechanisms also operate, especially late in development, when preprogrammed progenitors solely generate specific fates.

中文翻译：

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视网膜细胞命运的细胞和分子决定因素

脊椎动物视网膜被认为是中枢神经系统（CNS）的一个简单部分，因此适合研究细胞命运的决定因素。它的五种神经元细胞类型和一种神经胶质细胞类型都源自共同的祖细胞库。在这里我们回顾一下每个细胞类别是如何生成的。视网膜祖细胞经历不同的能力状态，在每个状态下它们仅产生一小部分细胞类别。祖细胞的内在状态由其表达的转录因子的补体决定。因此，尽管祖细胞是多能的，但它们在任何特定时间窗口内产生的命运类型都存在偏差。覆盖这些能力状态的是影响命运决定的随机机制。这些机制是由一组基于视网膜细胞类别丰度的加权概率决定的。确定性机制也会起作用，特别是在发育后期，当预先编程的祖细胞只产生特定的命运时。