Attraction and repulsion cooperate during brain-circuit wiring

Xie, Yajun; Harwell, Corey

doi:10.1038/d41586-021-01502-0

NEWS AND VIEWS
04 June 2021

Attraction and repulsion cooperate during brain-circuit wiring

Examination of the molecular interactions that govern the assembly of neural circuits in a brain region called the hippocampus reveals that neuronal projections are guided to their targets by both attractive and repulsive cues.

Yajun Xie⁰ &
Corey Harwell¹

Yajun Xie
1. Yajun Xie is in the Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massuchusetts 02115, USA.
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Corey Harwell
1. Corey Harwell is in the Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massuchusetts 02115, USA, and in the Department of Neurology, Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143, USA, and in the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco.
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Our ability to sense and navigate the world requires the precise assembly and function of neural circuits in the brain. During development, neuronal-cell projections called axons are guided by molecular cues to extend away from non-target regions of the brain and towards their target regions¹, where axons make synaptic connections with partner neurons. Over the past few decades, several candidate molecular cues have been identified²; however, questions remain as to whether distinct sets of cell-surface molecules mediate attraction to targets and avoidance of non-target regions. Writing in Science, Pederick et al.³ show in mice that axon attraction and repulsion are guided by the same cell-surface molecule during circuit assembly in the hippocampus, a brain region involved in spatial memory and navigation⁴.

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Nature 594, 341-343 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01502-0

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Competing Interests

C.H. is in the process of transitioning from his appointment at Harvard Medical School to UCSF where he will also be a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub investigator. Stephen Quake is a co-author of the study referred to in this News & Views article and is currently co-president of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.