Spatio-Temporal Regulation of Notch Activation in Asymmetrically Dividing Sensory Organ Precursor Cells in Epithelium.

The Notch communication pathway, discovered in over 100 years ago, regulates a wide range of intra-lineage decisions in metazoans. The division of the mechanosensory organ precursor is the archetype of asymmetric cell division in which differential Notch activation takes place at cytokinesis. Here, we review the molecular mechanisms by which epithelial cell polarity, cell cycle and intracellular trafficking participate in controlling the directionality, subcellular localization and temporality of mechanosensitive Notch receptor activation in cytokinesis.