Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Axon guidance

Channel surprise

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 6, page 348 (2005)Cite this article

The growth cones of developing axons navigate through a complex environment, and along the way they read molecular signals that tell them where and when to stop, go and turn. It is possible to simulate growth cone guidance in a dish, by culturing neurons and exposing their growth cones to gradients of attractive or repulsive molecules delivered by a micropipette. The growth cones respond by turning towards or away from the pipette.

Using this deceptively simple technique, Mu-ming Poo and colleagues have assembled a substantial body of work to show that the turning response to an attractive signal, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) or netrin, requires a minimum level of intracellular cyclic nucleotides, and depends on the formation of calcium gradients across the growth cone. Indeed, the attractive response can be switched to repulsion if either cyclic AMP activity or calcium influx are low. Both attractive and repulsive responses require calcium influx. But how does calcium enter the growth cone? Earlier work has shown that L-type voltage-dependent calcium channels account for part of the influx, and two papers published in Nature now show that transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) channels must be activated before the L-type channels can kick in.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Li, Y. et al. Essential role of TRPC channels in the guidance of nerve growth cones by brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Nature 9 March 2005 (10.1038/nature03477)

  2. Wang, G. X. & Poo, M. -m. Requirement of TRPC channels in netrin-1-induced chemotropic turning of nerve growth cones. Nature 9 March 2005 (10.1038/nature03478)

FURTHER READING

  1. Henley, J. & Poo, M. -m. Guiding neuronal growth cones using Ca2+ signals. Trends Cell Biol. 14, 320–330 (2004)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Associate Editor, Nature Neuroscience,

    Annette Markus

Authors
  1. Annette Markus
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Related links

Related links

WEB SITES

Poo's laboratory

Institute of Neuroscience, Shanghai

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Markus, A. Channel surprise. Nat Rev Neurosci 6, 348 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1680

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1680

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing