Articles

Contralateral migration of oculomotor neurons is regulated by Slit/Robo signaling

Oculomotor neurons develop initially like typical motor neurons, projecting axons out of the ventral midbrain to their ipsilateral targets, the extraocular muscles. However, in all vertebrates, after the oculo...

Authors: Brielle Bjorke, Farnaz Shoja-Taheri, Minkyung Kim, G. Eric Robinson, Tatiana Fontelonga, Kyung-Tai Kim, Mi-Ryoung Song and Grant S. Mastick

Differential timing of granule cell production during cerebellum development underlies generation of the foliation pattern

The mouse cerebellum (Cb) has a remarkably complex foliated three-dimensional (3D) structure, but a stereotypical cytoarchitecture and local circuitry. Little is known of the cellular behaviors and genes that ...

Authors: Emilie Legué, Jackie L. Gottshall, Edouard Jaumouillé, Alberto Roselló-Díez, Wei Shi, Luis Humberto Barraza, Senna Washington, Rachel L. Grant and Alexandra L. Joyner

Lmx1b is required for the glutamatergic fates of a subset of spinal cord neurons

Alterations in neurotransmitter phenotypes of specific neurons can cause imbalances in excitation and inhibition in the central nervous system (CNS), leading to diseases. Therefore, the correct specification a...

Authors: William C. Hilinski, Jonathan R. Bostrom, Samantha J. England, José L. Juárez-Morales, Sarah de Jager, Olivier Armant, Jessica Legradi, Uwe Strähle, Brian A. Link and Katharine E. Lewis

In vivo functional analysis of Drosophila Robo1 immunoglobulin-like domains

In animals with bilateral symmetry, midline crossing of axons in the developing central nervous system is regulated by Slit ligands and their neuronal Roundabout (Robo) receptors. Multiple structural domains a...

Authors: Marie C. Reichert, Haley E. Brown and Timothy A. Evans

Fragile X mental retardation protein knockdown in the developing Xenopus tadpole optic tectum results in enhanced feedforward inhibition and behavioral deficits

Fragile X Syndrome is the leading monogenetic cause of autism and most common form of intellectual disability. Previous studies have implicated changes in dendritic spine architecture as the primary result of ...

Authors: Torrey L. S. Truszkowski, Eric J. James, Mashfiq Hasan, Tyler J. Wishard, Zhenyu Liu, Kara G. Pratt, Hollis T. Cline and Carlos D. Aizenman

Dual leucine zipper kinase regulates expression of axon guidance genes in mouse neuronal cells

Recent genetic studies in model organisms, such as Drosophila, C. elegans and mice, have highlighted a critical role for dual leucine zipper kinase (DLK) in neural development and axonal responses to injury. Howe...

Authors: Andréanne Blondeau, Jean-François Lucier, Dominick Matteau, Lauralyne Dumont, Sébastien Rodrigue, Pierre-Étienne Jacques and Richard Blouin

Molecular and behavioral profiling of Dbx1-derived neurons in the arcuate, lateral and ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei

Neurons in the hypothalamus function to regulate the state of the animal during both learned and innate behaviors, and alterations in hypothalamic development may contribute to pathological conditions such as ...

Authors: Katie Sokolowski, Tuyen Tran, Shigeyuki Esumi, Yasmin Kamal, Livio Oboti, Julieta Lischinsky, Meredith Goodrich, Andrew Lam, Margaret Carter, Yasushi Nakagawa and Joshua G. Corbin

The role of heparan sulfate deficiency in autistic phenotype: potential involvement of Slit/Robo/srGAPs-mediated dendritic spine formation

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are the second most common developmental cause of disability in the United States. ASDs are accompanied with substantial economic and emotional cost. The brains of ASD patients ...

Authors: Christine Pérez, Darrell Sawmiller and Jun Tan

Characterization of primary cilia during the differentiation of retinal ganglion cells in the zebrafish

Retinal ganglion cell (RGC) differentiation in vivo is a highly stereotyped process, likely resulting from the interaction of cell type-specific transcription factors and tissue-derived signaling factors. The ...

Authors: Paola Lepanto, Camila Davison, Gabriela Casanova, Jose L. Badano and Flavio R. Zolessi

Expression and functional analysis of the Wnt/beta-catenin induced mir-135a-2 locus in embryonic forebrain development

Brain size and patterning are dependent on dosage-sensitive morphogen signaling pathways – yet how these pathways are calibrated remains enigmatic. Recent studies point to a new role for microRNAs in tempering...

Authors: Giuliana Caronia-Brown, Angela Anderegg and Rajeshwar Awatramani

The PHR proteins: intracellular signaling hubs in neuronal development and axon degeneration

During development, a coordinated and integrated series of events must be accomplished in order to generate functional neural circuits. Axons must navigate toward target cells, build synaptic connections, and ...

Authors: Brock Grill, Rodney K. Murphey and Melissa A. Borgen

Bacurd1/Kctd13 and Bacurd2/Tnfaip1 are interacting partners to Rnd proteins which influence the long-term positioning and dendritic maturation of cerebral cortical neurons

The development of neural circuits within the embryonic cerebral cortex relies on the timely production of neurons, their positioning within the embryonic cerebral cortex as well as their terminal differentiat...

Authors: Ivan Gladwyn-Ng, Lieven Huang, Linh Ngo, Shan Shan Li, Zhengdong Qu, Hannah Kate Vanyai, Hayley Daniella Cullen, John Michael Davis and Julian Ik-Tsen Heng

Reviewer acknowledgement

The editors of Neural Development would like to thank all the reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 10 (2015).

Authors: Chris Q. Doe, William Harris, Kang Shen and Rachel Wong

Evx1 and Evx2 specify excitatory neurotransmitter fates and suppress inhibitory fates through a Pax2-independent mechanism

For neurons to function correctly in neuronal circuitry they must utilize appropriate neurotransmitters. However, even though neurotransmitter specificity is one of the most important and defining properties o...

Authors: José L. Juárez-Morales, Claus J. Schulte, Sofia A. Pezoa, Grace K. Vallejo, William C. Hilinski, Samantha J. England, Sarah de Jager and Katharine E. Lewis

Region-specific role of growth differentiation factor-5 in the establishment of sympathetic innervation

Nerve growth factor (NGF) is the prototypical target-derived neurotrophic factor required for sympathetic neuron survival and for the growth and ramification of sympathetic axons within most but not all sympat...

Authors: Gerard W. O’Keeffe, Humberto Gutierrez, Laura Howard, Christopher W. Laurie, Catarina Osorio, Núria Gavaldà, Sean L. Wyatt and Alun M. Davies

Identification of molecular signatures specific for distinct cranial sensory ganglia in the developing chick

The cranial sensory ganglia represent populations of neurons with distinct functions, or sensory modalities. The production of individual ganglia from distinct neurogenic placodes with different developmental ...

Authors: Cedric Patthey, Harry Clifford, Wilfried Haerty, Chris P. Ponting, Sebastian M. Shimeld and Jo Begbie

Charcot-Marie-Tooth 2b associated Rab7 mutations cause axon growth and guidance defects during vertebrate sensory neuron development

Charcot-Marie-Tooth2b (CMT2b) is an axonal form of a human neurodegenerative disease that preferentially affects sensory neurons. CMT2b is dominantly inherited and is characterized by unusually early onset, pr...

Authors: Olga Y. Ponomareva, Kevin W. Eliceiri and Mary C. Halloran

Microtubule-associated protein 1b is required for shaping the neural tube

Shaping of the neural tube, the precursor of the brain and spinal cord, involves narrowing and elongation of the neural tissue, concomitantly with other morphogenetic changes that contribue to this process. In...

Authors: Pradeepa Jayachandran, Valerie N. Olmo, Stephanie P. Sanchez, Rebecca J. McFarland, Eudorah Vital, Jonathan M. Werner, Elim Hong, Neus Sanchez-Alberola, Aleksey Molodstov and Rachel M. Brewster

Deltex1 is inhibited by the Notch–Hairy/E(Spl) signaling pathway and induces neuronal and glial differentiation

Notch signaling has been conserved throughout evolution and plays a fundamental role in various neural developmental processes and the pathogenesis of several human cancers and genetic disorders. However, how ...

Authors: Yi-Chuan Cheng, Yin-Cheng Huang, Tu-Hsueh Yeh, Hung-Yu Shih, Ching-Yu Lin, Sheng-Jia Lin, Ching-Chi Chiu, Ching-Wen Huang and Yun-Jin Jiang

Ephrin-A2 and ephrin-A5 guide contralateral targeting but not topographic mapping of ventral cochlear nucleus axons

In the auditory brainstem, ventral cochlear nucleus (VCN) axons project to the contralateral, but not ipsilateral, medial nucleus of trapezoid body (MNTB), terminating in the calyx of Held. Dorsal VCN neurons,...

Authors: Mariam L. Abdul-latif, Jesus A. Ayala Salazar, Sonya Marshak, Minhan L. Dinh and Karina S. Cramer

Pax6 is required intrinsically by thalamic progenitors for the normal molecular patterning of thalamic neurons but not the growth and guidance of their axons

In mouse embryos, the Pax6 transcription factor is expressed in the progenitors of thalamic neurons but not in thalamic neurons themselves. Its null-mutation causes early mis-patterning of thalamic progenitors...

Authors: James M. Clegg, Ziwen Li, Michael Molinek, Isabel Martín Caballero, Martine N. Manuel and David J. Price

EphrinB2 sharpens lateral motor column division in the developing spinal cord

During sensori-motor circuit development, the somas of motoneurons (MN) are distributed in a topographic manner in the ventral horn of the neural tube. Indeed, their position within the lateral motor columns (...

Authors: Maëva Luxey, Julien Laussu and Alice Davy

An emerging role for prdm family genes in dorsoventral patterning of the vertebrate nervous system

The embryonic vertebrate neural tube is divided along its dorsoventral (DV) axis into eleven molecularly discrete progenitor domains. Each of these domains gives rise to distinct neuronal cell types; the ventr...

Authors: Denise A. Zannino and Charles G. Sagerström

The LRR receptor Islr2 is required for retinal axon routing at the vertebrate optic chiasm

In the visual system of most binocular vertebrates, the axons of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) diverge at the diencephalic midline and extend to targets on both ipsi- and contralateral sides of the brain. Whil...

Authors: Paolo Panza, Austen A. Sitko, Hans-Martin Maischein, Iris Koch, Matthias Flötenmeyer, Gavin J. Wright, Kenji Mandai, Carol A. Mason and Christian Söllner

Erratum to: Morphogenesis underlying the development of the everted teleost telencephalon

Authors: Mónica Folgueira, Philippa Bayley, Pavla Navratilova, Thomas S Becker, Stephen W Wilson and Jonathan DW Clarke

Rac1 plays an essential role in axon growth and guidance and in neuronal survival in the central and peripheral nervous systems

Rac1 is a critical regulator of cytoskeletal dynamics in multiple cell types. In the nervous system, it has been implicated in the control of cell proliferation, neuronal migration, and axon development.

Authors: Zhong L. Hua, Francesco E. Emiliani and Jeremy Nathans

Developmental attenuation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit expression by microRNAs

N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are a subtype of ionotropic glutamate receptors and are expressed throughout the central nervous system (CNS). Their activity is required for excitatory synaptic transmi...

Authors: Caroline Corbel, Israel Hernandez, Bian Wu and Kenneth S. Kosik

Developmental remodeling of relay cells in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus in the absence of retinal input

The dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of the mouse has been an important experimental model for understanding thalamic circuit development. The developmental remodeling of retinal projections has been t...

Authors: Rana N. El-Danaf, Thomas E. Krahe, Emily K. Dilger, Martha E. Bickford, Michael A. Fox and William Guido

A critical role of RBM8a in proliferation and differentiation of embryonic neural progenitors

Nonsense mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is an RNA surveillance mechanism that controls RNA stability and ensures the speedy degradation of erroneous and unnecessary transcripts. This mechanism depends on several co...

Authors: Donghua Zou, Colleen McSweeney, Aswathy Sebastian, Derrick James Reynolds, Fengping Dong, Yijing Zhou, Dazhi Deng, Yonggang Wang, Long Liu, Jun Zhu, Jizhong Zou, Yongsheng Shi, Istvan Albert and Yingwei Mao

Type I intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells of early post-natal development correspond to the M4 subtype

Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) mediate circadian light entrainment and the pupillary light response in adult mice. In early development these cells mediate different processes, in...

Authors: Timothy J. Sexton, Adam Bleckert, Maxwell H. Turner and Russell N. Van Gelder

Erratum to: Differential requirement of F-actin and microtubule cytoskeleton in cue-induced local protein synthesis in axonal growth cones

Authors: Michael Piper, Aih Cheun Lee, Francisca P.G van Horck, Heather McNeilly, Trina Bo Lu, William A Harris and Christine E Holt

Multi-site phosphorylation regulates NeuroD4 activity during primary neurogenesis: a conserved mechanism amongst proneural proteins

Basic Helix Loop Helix (bHLH) proneural transcription factors are master regulators of neurogenesis that act at multiple stages in this process. We have previously demonstrated that multi-site phosphorylation ...

Authors: Laura J. A. Hardwick and Anna Philpott

Netrin-1 directs dendritic growth and connectivity of vertebrate central neurons in vivo

Netrins are a family of extracellular proteins that function as chemotropic guidance cues for migrating cells and axons during neural development. In the visual system, netrin-1 has been shown to play a key ro...

Authors: Anastasia N. Nagel, Sonya Marshak, Colleen Manitt, Rommel A. Santos, Marc A. Piercy, Sarah D. Mortero, Nicole J. Shirkey-Son and Susana Cohen-Cory

The methyl binding domain 3/nucleosome remodelling and deacetylase complex regulates neural cell fate determination and terminal differentiation in the cerebral cortex

Chromatin-modifying complexes have key roles in regulating various aspects of neural stem cell biology, including self-renewal and neurogenesis. The methyl binding domain 3/nucleosome remodelling and deacetyla...

Authors: Erin Knock, João Pereira, Patrick D Lombard, Andrew Dimond, Donna Leaford, Frederick J Livesey and Brian Hendrich

Genetic chimeras reveal the autonomy requirements for Vsx2 in embryonic retinal progenitor cells

Vertebrate retinal development is a complex process, requiring the specification and maintenance of retinal identity, proliferative expansion of retinal progenitor cells (RPCs), and their differentiation into ...

Authors: Crystal L Sigulinsky, Massiell L German, Amanda M Leung, Anna M Clark, Sanghee Yun and Edward M Levine

Dynamic regulation of mRNA decay during neural development

Gene expression patterns are determined by rates of mRNA transcription and decay. While transcription is known to regulate many developmental processes, the role of mRNA decay is less extensively defined. A cr...

Authors: Dana A Burow, Maxine C Umeh-Garcia, Marie B True, Crystal D Bakhaj, David H Ardell and Michael D Cleary

Formation of functional areas in the cerebral cortex is disrupted in a mouse model of autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of poorly understood behavioural disorders, which have increased in prevalence in the past two decades. Animal models offer the opportunity to understand the biologi...

Authors: Laura R Fenlon, Sha Liu, Ilan Gobius, Nyoman D Kurniawan, Skyle Murphy, Randal X Moldrich and Linda J Richards

Fgf signaling controls the telencephalic distribution of Fgf-expressing progenitors generated in the rostral patterning center

The rostral patterning center (RPC) secretes multiple fibroblast growth factors (Fgfs) essential for telencephalon growth and patterning. Fgf expression patterns suggest that they mark functionally distinct RP...

Authors: Renée V Hoch, Jeffrey A Clarke and John LR Rubenstein

Bacurd2 is a novel interacting partner to Rnd2 which controls radial migration within the developing mammalian cerebral cortex

During fetal brain development in mammals, newborn neurons undergo cell migration to reach their appropriate positions and form functional circuits. We previously reported that the atypical RhoA GTPase Rnd2 pr...

Authors: Ivan Enghian Gladwyn-Ng, Shan Shan Li, Zhengdong Qu, John Michael Davis, Linh Ngo, Matilda Haas, Jeffrey Singer and Julian Ik-Tsen Heng

Dorsoventral patterning of the Xenopus eye involves differential temporal changes in the response of optic stalk and retinal progenitors to Hh signalling

Hedgehog (Hh) signals are instrumental to the dorsoventral patterning of the vertebrate eye, promoting optic stalk and ventral retinal fates and repressing dorsal retinal identity. There has been limited analy...

Authors: Xiumei Wang, Giuseppe Lupo, Rongqiao He, Giuseppina Barsacchi, William A Harris and Ying Liu

Subrepellent doses of Slit1 promote Netrin-1 chemotactic responses in subsets of axons

Axon pathfinding is controlled by guidance cues that elicit specific attractive or repulsive responses in growth cones. It has now become clear that some cues such as Netrin-1 can trigger either attraction or ...

Authors: Isabelle Dupin, Ludmilla Lokmane, Maxime Dahan, Sonia Garel and Vincent Studer

Upregulation of the zebrafish Nogo-A homologue, Rtn4b, in retinal ganglion cells is functionally involved in axon regeneration

In contrast to mammals, zebrafish successfully regenerate retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons after optic nerve section (ONS). This difference is explained on the one hand by neurite growth inhibitors in mammals...

Authors: Cornelia Welte, Sarah Engel and Claudia A O Stuermer

Reviewer Acknowledgement

The editors of Neural Development would like to thank all the reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 9 (2014).

Authors: Chris Q Doe, William Harris, Kang Shen and Rachel Wong

Differential requirement of F-actin and microtubule cytoskeleton in cue-induced local protein synthesis in axonal growth cones

Local protein synthesis (LPS) via receptor-mediated signaling plays a role in the directional responses of axons to extrinsic cues. An intact cytoskeleton is critical to enact these responses, but it is not kn...

Authors: Michael Piper, Aih Cheun Lee, Francisca PG van Horck, Heather McNeilly, Trina Bo Lu, William A Harris and Christine E Holt

Polycomb group genes are required to maintain a binary fate choice in the Drosophila eye

Identifying the mechanisms by which cells remain irreversibly committed to their fates is a critical step toward understanding and being able to manipulate development and homeostasis. Polycomb group (PcG) pro...

Authors: Jennifer K Finley, Adam C Miller and Tory G Herman

Quantitative differences in developmental profiles of spontaneous activity in cortical and hippocampal cultures

Neural circuits can spontaneously generate complex spatiotemporal firing patterns during development. This spontaneous activity is thought to help guide development of the nervous system. In this study, we had...

Authors: Paul Charlesworth, Ellese Cotterill, Andrew Morton, Seth GN Grant and Stephen J Eglen

Establishment of the neurogenic boundary of the mouse retina requires cooperation of SOX2 and WNT signaling

Eye development in vertebrates relies on the critical regulation of SOX2 expression. Humans with mutations in SOX2 often suffer from eye defects including anophthalmia (no eye) and microphthalmia (small eye). In ...

Authors: Whitney E Heavner, Cynthia L Andoniadou and Larysa H Pevny

Leading-process actomyosin coordinates organelle positioning and adhesion receptor dynamics in radially migrating cerebellar granule neurons

During brain development, neurons migrate from germinal zones to their final positions to assemble neural circuits. A unique saltatory cadence involving cyclical organelle movement (e.g., centrosome motility) ...

Authors: Niraj Trivedi, Joseph S Ramahi, Mahmut Karakaya, Danielle Howell, Ryan A Kerekes and David J Solecki

Eye-specific retinogeniculate segregation proceeds normally following disruption of patterned spontaneous retinal activity

Spontaneous retinal activity (SRA) is important during eye-specific segregation within the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN), but the feature(s) of activity critical for retinogeniculate refinement are ...

Authors: Colenso M Speer, Chao Sun, Lauren C Liets, Ben K Stafford, Barbara Chapman and Hwai-Jong Cheng

Neuropilins define distinct populations of neural crest cells

Neural crest cells (NCCs) are a transient embryonic cell type that give rise to a wide spectrum of derivatives, including neurons and glia of the sensory and autonomic nervous system, melanocytes and connectiv...

Authors: Rachael Lumb, Sophie Wiszniak, Samuela Kabbara, Michaela Scherer, Natasha Harvey and Quenten Schwarz