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Neurobiology

Derailed axons get on track

Nature volume 402, pages 475–476 (1999)Cite this article

How do growing axons in the central nervous system navigate through the dense jungle of cells and processes that they encounter on the way to their targets? On page 540 of this issue, Bonkowsky et al.1 show that the choice of pathways for growth cones (the leading edges of growing axons) in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is regulated by a receptor tyrosine kinase known as Derailed (Drl). These results further indicate that, rather than attracting growth cones to the right pathways, Drl causes them to be repelled from the wrong ones.

Can Drl redirect any crossing axon into the anterior commissure? To address this question, Bonkowsky et al. simultaneously misexpressed the Commissureless (Comm) protein and Drl on a set of axons that normally never cross the midline (the thoracic Ap axons). Expression of Comm in neurons downregulates a repulsive signal from the midline that is transduced by the Roundabout (Robo) receptor. So, non-crossing axons that express Comm are diverted into pathways that cross the midline6. The authors found that when the thoracic Ap axons expressed only Comm, they crossed in the posterior commissure. But when they expressed Drl as well, they switched to an anterior pathway.

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Figure 1: Individual axons follow complex trajectories within the central nervous system (CNS).
Figure 2: Effects of Drl expression on axon guidance.

References

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  1. Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    Kai Zinn & Aloisia Schmid

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  1. Kai Zinn
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  2. Aloisia Schmid
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Correspondence to Kai Zinn or Aloisia Schmid.

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Zinn, K., Schmid, A. Derailed axons get on track. Nature 402, 475–476 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/44981

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