Different lineages, one fate: convergent astrocyte differentiation in C. elegans.

CEH-43/Distal-less acts as a terminal selector in C. elegans CEPsh glia, regulating both transcriptional convergence and mature astrocyte-like feature acquisition.

• Why it matters: Astrocytes can originate from distinct progenitors, but the mechanism by which different lineages converge on a shared glial identity is unclear.
• What they did: Liu and colleagues dissected CEPsh glia differentiation in Caenorhabditis elegans using comparative transcriptomics and regulatory analysis to test how progenitors converge before postmitotic maturation.
• The result: CEPsh progenitors converge transcriptionally prior to maturation, and CEH-43/Distal-less directly controls the embryonic program and mature astrocyte-like traits, linking CEPsh glia to mammalian astrocyte-like molecular similarities.

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