Retinal neurons establish mosaic patterning by excluding homotypic somata from their dendritic territories
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: In vertebrate retina, individual neurons of the same type are distributed regularly across the tissue in a pattern known as a mosaic. Establishment of mosaics during development requires cell-cell repulsion among homotypic neurons, but the mechanisms underlying this repulsion remain unknown. Here we show that two mouse retinal cell types, OFF and ON starburst amacrine cells, establish mosaic spacing by using their dendritic arbors to repel neighboring homotypic somata. Using newly-generated transgenic tools and single cell labeling, we identify a transient developmental period when starburst somata receive extensive contacts from neighboring starburst dendrites; these serve to exclude somata from settling within the neighbor's dendritic territory. Dendrite-soma exclusion is mediated by MEGF10, a cell-surface molecule required for starburst mosaic patterning. Our results implicate dendrite-soma exclusion as a key mechanism underlying starburst mosaic spacing, and suggest that this could be a general mechanism for mosaic patterning across many cell types and species.
Source: Cell Reports
Institutions: Duke University, Duke Medical Center
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $5,460
OpenAlex ID: W4401493998