Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Unravelling how neurons are guided during vertebrate embryonic development has wide implications for understanding the assembly of the nervous system. During embryogenesis, migration of neuronal cell bodies and axons occurs simultaneously, but to what degree they influence each other’s development remains obscure. We show here that within the mouse embryonic spinal cord, commissural axons bisect, delimit or preconfigure ventral interneuron cell body position. Furthermore, genetic disruption of commissural axons results in abnormal ventral interneuron cell body positioning. These data suggest that commissural axonal fascicles instruct cell body position by acting either as border landmarks (axon-restricted migration), which to our knowledge has not been previously addressed, or acting as cellular guides. This study in the developing spinal cord highlights an important function for the interaction of cell bodies and axons, and provides a conceptual proof of principle that is likely to have overarching implications for the development of neuronal architecture. During vertebrate embryogenesis, migration of neuronal cell bodies and axons occurs simultaneously, but to what degree they influence each other’s development remains unclear. Here the authors find that in the mouse spinal cord commissural axons influence neuronal migration in two different ways.
Source: Nature Communications
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8028
Institution: Umeå University
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,990
OpenAlex ID: W753758445