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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.
The development of the human cerebellum is not well understood. Here, the authors analyse a large sample of neuroimaging scans from children and adolescents to develop growth models of the cerebellum which mirror age-related developmental trajectories of behaviour and function.
This paper identifies the evolutionarily conserved liprin-α protein family as key mediators of presynaptic assembly in human neurons. Their recruitment to sites formed by contacting neurons is the critical initial step that triggers presynaptic differentiation.
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.