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Neurobiology

Discriminating migrations

Nature volume 400, pages 315–316 (1999)Cite this article

Many brain structures, like some frontier countries, are composed exclusively of immigrants. In the mammalian brain, for example, virtually all neurons migrate from their origin, near the cerebral ventricles, to the distant territories where they establish permanent residence. Although the mechanisms that attract neurons to their final destinations are not well understood, we know that certain brain structures discriminate between cell populations by discouraging specific classes of neuron from invading their territories. On page 331 of this issue, Wu et al.1 reveal a molecular cue that guides neurons as they migrate from the postnatal rodent forebrain into the olfactory bulb. They show that this guidance mechanism depends on the brain structures that surround the migratory pathway — structures that repel migrating neurons from their borders, while leaving invasion of the olfactory bulb as an option.

In the developing nervous system, most neurons are generated at different sites from those in which they permanently reside2. The intervening process, termed neuronal migration, denotes the displacement of a neuronal cell body from its origin in the proliferative zones to its final destination in the mature brain. After ey have finished dividing, cells dislodge from adjacent progenitors, extend a ‘leading process’, then move along specific pathways2. Interactions between the migrating neurons and the surfaces of neighbouring cells are crucial for the selection of migratory pathways, as well as for orientating, conducting and stopping neuronal movement at the appropriate site3.

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Figure 1: Possible function of Slit in directing neuronal migration in the postnatal mouse brain.

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  1. Section of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, 06510, Connecticut, USA

    Pasko Rakic

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  1. Pasko Rakic
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Rakic, P. Discriminating migrations. Nature 400, 315–316 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/22427

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