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Neurobiology

Slit, the midline repellent

Nature volume 398, pages 462–463 (1999)Cite this article

In bilaterally symmetric animals, communication between the left and right halves of the body is mediated by neurons that send axons across the midline of the central nervous system (CNS). These axons move along seams, or ‘commissures’, that are thought to be evolutionarily ancient1 — even very simple animals contract muscles on one side of their body to avoid a stimulus on the other side. Five reports in Cell2,3,4,5 and Neuron6 now describe the product of a previously known gene, slit, which is thought to be important not only in the formation of these commissures, but also in axon guidance and the migration of muscle cells.

Not all neurons are commissural, and there are many uncrossed projections in the CNS. Understanding what makes only some axons cross the midline has been a challenge. Several years ago, Marc Tessier-Lavigne and colleagues identified an axon-guidance molecule called netrin, which is secreted at the ventral midline of the developing vertebrate spinal cord. Axons from commissural neurons in the spinal cord are attracted to netrin7. At about the same time, Corey Goodman and colleagues identified two Drosophila mutants with midline-crossing defects. Whereas in commissureless (comm) mutants axons do not cross the midline at all, in roundabout (robo ) mutants they relentlessly cross and recross it8.

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Figure 1: The function of Slit in axon guidance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3DY , UK

    W. A. Harris & C. E. Holt

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  1. W. A. Harris
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  2. C. E. Holt
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Harris, W., Holt, C. Slit, the midline repellent. Nature 398, 462–463 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/18970

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