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UNC5A promotes neuronal apoptosis during spinal cord development independent of netrin-1

Nature Neuroscience volume 9, pages 996–998 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

In addition to their role as chemorepellent netrin-1 receptors, UNC5 proteins may mediate cell death because they induce apoptosis in cultured cells. To test this in vivo, we generated Unc5a (formerly Unc5h1) knockout mice and found that this deletion decreased apoptosis and increased the number of neurons in the spinal cord. In contrast, loss of netrin-1 (Ntn1) did not affect the amount of apoptosis, suggesting that NTN1 is not required for neuronal apoptosis in vivo.

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Figure 1: Endogenous expression and targeted disruption of the Unc5a gene locus.
Figure 2: Loss of Unc5a results in decreased apoptotic cell death, supernumerary neurons and abnormal spinal architecture.
Figure 3: Loss of Ntn1 does not affect apoptosis in vivo.

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Acknowledgements

Antibodies to spinal accessory neurons (802C11) were a gift from S.C. Fujita (Mitsubishi Kagaku Institute of Life Sciences, Tokyo, Japan). Supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (NS39572- to L.H., MH12813 to M.W.), the Damon-Runyon Cancer Research Fund (X.L.) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (M.T.-L.).

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Author notes

  1. Xiaowei Lu

    Present address: Department of Cell Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, 22908, USA

  2. Megan E Williams, Xiaowei Lu and William L McKenna: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, 95064, California, USA

    Megan E Williams, William L McKenna, Raesha Washington, Adam Boyette, Phyllis Strickland & Lindsay Hinck

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Xiaowei Lu

  3. Departments of Neuroscience and Pathology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, 10461, New York, USA

    Allison Dillon & Zaven Kaprielian

  4. Genentech Inc., 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, 94080, California, USA

    Marc Tessier-Lavigne

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  1. Megan E Williams
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Correspondence to Lindsay Hinck.

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Williams, M., Lu, X., McKenna, W. et al. UNC5A promotes neuronal apoptosis during spinal cord development independent of netrin-1. Nat Neurosci 9, 996–998 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1736

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