Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: Axons must project to particular brain regions, contact adjacent neurons, and choose appropriate synaptic targets to form a nervous system. Multiple mechanisms have been proposed to explain synaptic partnership choice. In a "lock-and-key" mechanism, first proposed by Sperry's chemoaffinity model, 1 a neuron selectively chooses a synaptic partner among several different, adjacent target cells, based on a specific molecular recognition code. 2 Alternatively, Peters' rule posits that neurons indiscriminately form connections with other neuron types in their proximity; hence, neighborhood choice, determined by initial neuronal process outgrowth and position, is the main predictor of connectivity. 3 , 4 However, whether Peters' rule plays an important role in synaptic wiring remains unresolved. 5 To assess the nanoscale relationship between neuronal adjacency and connectivity, we evaluate the expansive set of C. elegans connectomes . We find that synaptic specificity can be accurately modeled as a process mediated by a neurite adjacency threshold and brain strata, offering strong support for Peters' rule as an organizational principle of C. elegans brain wiring.
Source: Current Biology
Institutions: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $6,830
Funder: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
OpenAlex ID: W4378187498