• Citer

The assembly of developing motor neurons depends on an interplay between spontaneous activity, type II cadherins and gap junctions

par Montague, Karli;Lowe, Andrew J.;Uzquiano, Ana;Knüfer, Athene;Astick, Marc ;Price, Stephen S.R.;Guthrie, Sarah
Référence Development, 144, 5, page (830-836)
Publication Publié, 2017-03

Article révisé par les pairs

• Accès en ligne
• Détails
• Contenu
• Statistiques

Résumé :

A core structural and functional motif of the vertebrate central nervous systemis discrete clusters of neurons or ʼnuclei’. Yet the developmental mechanisms underlying this fundamental mode of organisation are largely unknown.We have previously shown that the assembly ofmotor neurons into nuclei depends on cadherin-mediated adhesion. Here, we demonstrate that the emergence of mature topography among motor nuclei involves a novel interplay between spontaneous activity, cadherin expression and gap junction communication. We report that nuclei display spontaneous calciumtransients, and that changes in the activity patterns coincide with the course of nucleogenesis. We also find that these activity patterns are disrupted by manipulating cadherin or gap junction expression. Furthermore, inhibition of activity disrupts nucleogenesis, suggesting that activity feeds back tomaintain integrityamong motor neurons within a nucleus. Our study suggests that a network of interactions between cadherins, gap junctions and spontaneous activity governs neuron assembly, presaging circuit formation.