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The development of the nervous system is the ongoing biological process through which nervous tissue is generated and shaped in an embryo and in postnatal and adult organisms. Understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie neural development may also provide insight into the causes of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Connecting cerebral organoids with an axon bundle models inter-regional projections and enhances neural activity. Optogenetic stimulation induces short-term plasticity, offering insights into macroscopic circuit development and functionality.
Neural mechanisms underlying brain-wide synchronization are not fully understood. Here authors show that traveling waves are prevalent in both excitatory and inhibitory neural populations, more pronounced in glutamatergic neurons, vary across developmental stages, and are associated with functional connections and gene expression.
The function of transient neuropeptides in developmental roles in the nervous system remains elusive. Here, authors demonstrate that galanin shapes synaptic wiring in the whisker pathway, a fundamental sensory modality for infant rodents before eye opening.
The proteomic changes that occur during synapse development are not fully understood. In this work, the authors characterise the postsynaptic proteome changes that occur during development in male mice and marmosets.
Semaphorin 5A (Sema5A) forms complexes with heparan and chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans to regulate neuronal migration. Here, the authors show that the thrombospondin-like repeat 4 (TSR4) of Sema5A enables glycosaminoglycan association, multimerization, and neural progenitor cell distribution.
An article in Nature Biotechnology reports flexible kirigami-based electronics that allow the non-invasive and long-term recording of electrical activity in neural organoids.
A study analyses the nanotopography of presynaptic calcium channels and release sensors and the degree of their coupling during maturation of an inhibitory synapse.
Cytoplasmic mislocalization of TDP-43 in neurodegenerative disease affects mRNA maturation and protein levels of stathmin-2, leading to a reduction in axon diameter and tearing of outer myelin layers and thereby disrupting neuronal function.
We discovered expression of SYNGAP1, which encodes the ‘synaptic’ protein SYNGAP1, within human cortical progenitors. In an organoid model of SYNGAP1 haploinsufficiency, cortical neurogenesis and neuronal network activity were disrupted. This finding reveals an unknown function for SYNGAP1 at early stages of development, providing a new framework for understanding the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorder.
During retinal development in the mouse, angiogenesis was unexpectedly found to depend on temporally restricted dopamine production by retinal ganglion cells, rather than by canonical retinal dopamine neurons.