Abstract

Several families of extracellular guidance cues have been implicated in guiding neurons and axons to their appropriate destinations in the nervous system. Their receptors include single- and seven-transmembrane receptors, and their signal transduction pathways converge onto the Rho family of small GTPases, which control the cytoskeleton. A single guidance protein can use different mechanisms to regulate different kinds of motility or the motilities of different cell types. There is crosstalk between the signalling pathways initiated by distinct guidance cues. Studies of neuronal guidance mechanisms have shed light not only on neural development, but also on other processes that involve the extracellular regulation of the cytoskeleton.

Author affiliations

1. Life Sciences Institute, Department of Biological Chemistry and Institute of Gerontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
2. Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, Box 8108, 660 S. Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.

Correspondence to: Kun-Liang Guan¹ Email: kunliang@umich.edu

Correspondence to: Yi Rao² Email: raoyi@pcg.wustl.edu