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Neuronal development

The source of the signal

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 18, page 324 (2017)Cite this article

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During embryonic development, spinal commissural axons extend towards the floor plate (FP), guided by the axon guidance molecule netrin 1, but the source of netrin 1 is a matter of debate. In the developing spinal cord, netrin 1 is expressed by FP cells and progenitor cells of the ventricular zone. The authors conditionally knocked out netrin 1 either from ventricular zone progenitors or FP cells and found that only loss of netrin 1 from the former disrupted axon guidance. Thus, contrary to prevailing thought, commissural axons are guided by netrin 1 produced by ventricular zone progenitors and not FP cells.

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References

  1. Varadarajan, S. G. et al. Netrin1 produced by neural progenitors, not floor plate cells, is required for axon guidance in the spinal cord. Neuron http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.03.007 (2017)

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  1. Sian Lewis
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Lewis, S. The source of the signal. Nat Rev Neurosci 18, 324 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.64

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