Both of these methods now provide tractable means of genetic analysis in primary MEC culture, which up to now have been hampered by Trichostatin A extremely low efficiencies of transfection and retroviral gene transfer. Neurons of the central as well as of the peripheral nervous system undergo dramatic structural changes especially throughout early stages of brain development. Especially the formation and plasticity of spines and synapses is highly dynamic throughout the entire lifespan and are thought to explain learning and memory formation within the CNS. However, neurogenesis is taking place also in the adult brain. In several subcompartments of the CNS, neural stem cells give rise to new neurons upon specific stimuli. As during embryonic development, these stem cells need to migrate, differentiate and integrate in order to be part of the functional nervous tissue. To execute structural changes, the controlled rearrangement of cytoskeletal components in small cellular subcompartments plays a pivotal role. It has been shown that the rearrangement machinery consists of several protein BMN673 complexes that are responsible for distinct functions. According to the local task, cytoskeletal proteins themselves interact with a variety of molecules including motor proteins or members of specific signaling pathways. The actin based cytoskeleton is most dynamic part of the cytoskeleton. Within microcompartments like filopodia and lamellipodia which are important for migration, integration into a cellular network and differentiation of newly generated neurons as well as within specialized neuronal structures like synaptic spines immediate, fast and controlled changes of actin filaments are needed. Actin is built of the g-actin molecules which can self-assemble depending on e.g. abundance of g-actin, pH or membrane potentials. Regulating proteins on the other hand can promote or prevent elongation, branching or disruption of actin filaments. Well known molecules in these complexes are proteins like Cdc42, Arp2/3, Cofilin, nWASP, Abi- 1 or Fascin. Membrane spanning proteins, e.g. ligand depending receptors and ion channels can guide extrinsic signals to these protein complexes. Expression, localization and specific activation of different ion-channels are known to be essential during development and maturation of undifferentiated stem and progenitor cells. During these processes cell morphology is characterized by the dynamic formation and reorganization of small cellular compartments of the outer cell structure like filopodia and lamellipodia. The structural basis are cytoskeletal proteins that are organized as dynamic macromolecular complexes and their modulation depends on the activation of ion channels. Especially Ca2+ -activated voltage independent K + channels influence the reorganization of lamellipodia and dendritic spines.