University of Sussex
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

Axon guidance: mice and men need rig and robo

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 07:07 authored by Sarah GuthrieSarah Guthrie
For many growing axons, navigating across the midline of the nervous system is a crucial stage of their development. New studies on mice and humans show that the axon guidance receptor Robo3/Rig1 is indispensable for axons to accomplish this task. The central nervous system develops as an axon scaffold arranged fairly symmetrically around a ventral midline. As axons grow, they maintain strict relationships to the midline in order to form correct pathways and functional connections. Some axons grow either away from or parallel to the midline, and never cross. Other axons cross the midline once, forming a commissure, and then continue to grow on the other side without recrossing. In humans and other mammals, many major axon tracts have crossed projections. These include the corticospinal tract, which descends from the cerebral cortex, crosses the midline in the brainstem and innervates motor neurons in the brainstem and spinal cord. Two large sensory tracts conveying information from the periphery also cross the midline as they ascend via the spinal cord to the brain. The dorsal column-medial lemniscus pathway crosses within the brainstem, while the spinothalamic tract contains commissural neurons which send axons across the midline at spinal levels.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Current Biology

ISSN

0960-9822

Publisher

Elsevier

Issue

15

Volume

14

Page range

R632-R634

Department affiliated with

  • Neuroscience Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-07-11

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC