During embryonic development, spinal commissural axons extend towards the floor plate (FP), guided by the axon guidance molecule netrin 1, but the source of netrin 1 is a matter of debate. In the developing spinal cord, netrin 1 is expressed by FP cells and progenitor cells of the ventricular zone. The authors conditionally knocked out netrin 1 either from ventricular zone progenitors or FP cells and found that only loss of netrin 1 from the former disrupted axon guidance. Thus, contrary to prevailing thought, commissural axons are guided by netrin 1 produced by ventricular zone progenitors and not FP cells.
References
Varadarajan, S. G. et al. Netrin1 produced by neural progenitors, not floor plate cells, is required for axon guidance in the spinal cord. Neuron http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.03.007 (2017)
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Lewis, S. The source of the signal. Nat Rev Neurosci 18, 324 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.64
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.64
