English: Direct visualisation of the astroglia-to-neuron metamorphosis in the absence of cell division over a time period of 5 d. Temporal sequence of high magnification views of an astrocyte culture following transfection with the retroviral plasmid encoding Neurog2-IRES-DsRed. Prior to the onset of DsRed expression, bright field images are shown to follow a cell subsequently found to be transfected (red arrow). DsRed fluorescence images are used to follow the cell through the reprogramming process. Note that the astroglial cell followed by the red arrow is reprogrammed into a neuron without entering cell division.