Growing nerve fibers get some guidance
A protein called Slit can repel growing nerve fibers or encourage axons to sprout secondary branches.
References:
Ba-Charvet, K.T.N. . . . C.S. Goodman, et al. In press. Slit-2-mediated chemorepulsion and collapse of developing forebrain axons. Neuron.
Brose, K. . . . C.S. Goodman, et al. 1999. Slit proteins bind Robo receptors and have an evolutionary conserved role in repulsive axon guidance. Cell 96(March 19):795.
Kidd, T., K.S. Bland, and C.S. Goodman. 1999. Slit is the midline repellent for the Robo receptor in Drosophila. Cell 96(March 19):785.
Li, H. . . . and Y. Rao. 1999. Vertebrate slit, a secreted ligand for the transmembrane protein Roundabout, is a repellent for olfactory bulb axons. Cell 96(March 19):807.
Wang, K.H. . . . C.S. Goodman . . . M. Tessier-Lavigne. 1999. Biochemical purification of a mammalian Slit protein as a positive regulator of sensory axon elongation and branching. Cell 96(March 19):771.
Sources:
Alain Chédotal
Hôpital de la Salpêtrière
Bâtiment de Pédiatrie
47 Bd de l'Hôpital
75013 Paris
France
Corey S. Goodman
University of California, Berkeley
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
Berkeley, CA 94720
Yi Rao
Washington University School of Medicine
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
St. Louis, MO 63110
Marc Tessier-Lavigne
University of California, San Francisco
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Departments of Anatomy & Biochemistry and Biophysics
San Francisco, CA 94143-0452
David L. Van Vactor
Harvard Medical School
Department of Cell Biology
Program in Neuroscience
240 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02115-5701
Kuan H. Wang
University of California, San Francisco
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Departments of Anatomy & Biochemistry and Biophysics
San Francisco, CA 94143-0452
From Science News, Vol. 155, No. 13, March 27, 1999, p. 197. Copyright © 1999, Science Service.
