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Axon and dendritic guidance is the biological process by which growing axons and dendrites orient and navigate to their targets during the development of the nervous system. Axon and dendritic guidance determines synaptic connectivity and is regulated by fixed or diffusible extracellular molecules as well as factors intrinsic to the neuron.
Semaphorin 5A (Sema5A) forms complexes with heparan and chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans to regulate neuronal migration. Here, the authors show that the thrombospondin-like repeat 4 (TSR4) of Sema5A enables glycosaminoglycan association, multimerization, and neural progenitor cell distribution.
How developing astroglia regulate postnatal axon growth is unknown. Here, the authors define an astroglial exosome surface HepaCAM contact mechanism in regulating axon growth and how its antagonization by ApoE coordinates early postnatal pyramidal neuronal development.
Adolescent drug use augments psychiatric risk. Here the authors show that abused drugs dysregulate adolescent Netrin-1/DCC signaling, triggering ectopic long-distance dopamine axon growth in males while Netrin1 compensatory events protect females.
Steady electric fields can shape axonal development of retinal ganglion cells in the embryonic chick retina, suggesting a role for electric axon guidance in central nervous system development.
Signals from extracellular cues orienting growing axons are thought to be integrated by second messenger molecules. Here, Baudet et al. instead demonstrate that distinct axon guidance cues induce cAMP, cGMP and Ca2+ signals restricted to separate cellular nanodomains.
In zebrafish, pioneer axons of the dorsal root ganglia require the release of synaptic-like vesicles to enter the spinal cord, suggesting that synaptic vesicles have a role in circuit formation ahead of synaptogenesis.
During nervous system development, secretion of netrin 1 from both the floorplate and the ventricular zone is shown to be important for guidance of commissural axons towards the ventral midline of the spinal cord.
Species-dependent regulation of plexin A1 signalling may underlie the elimination and retention of cortico–motor neuronal contacts in developing mice and in developing primates, respectively.