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Review

Nature Reviews Genetics 5, 923–935 (1 December 2004) | doi:10.1038/nrg1490

When sugars guide axons: insights from heparan sulphate proteoglycan mutants

Jeong-Soo Lee & Chi-Bin Chien

Although there have previously been hints that heparan sulphate proteoglycans (HSPGs) are important for axon guidance, as they are for many other biological processes, there has been little in vivo evidence for interaction with known axon-guidance pathways. Genetic analyses of fly, mouse, nematode and zebrafish mutants now confirm the role of HSPGs in axon guidance and are beginning to show that they might have a key role in modulating the action of axon-guidance ligands and receptors.