Motor neuron articles from across Nature Portfolio

Single motor neurons in Drosophila are stimulated to show that they direct head movements towards specific postures rather than generating fixed movement vectors, suggesting that the brain controls movements through a continuing proprioceptive–motor loop.

The study by Pallucchi et al. links the molecular identity of motoneuron and V2a interneuron subtypes to their function and uncovers orthogonal transcriptomic rules for their assembly into separate circuit modules controlling locomotor speed.

In the Drosophila central-pattern-generating neural network, a mechanism for network desynchronization relying on weak electrical synapses and specific excitability dynamics of the coupled neurons translates unpatterned premotor input into stereotyped neuronal firing with fixed sequences of cell activation, ensuring stable wingbeat power.

Chiot and colleagues investigated whether peripheral macrophages play a role in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) pathology, finding that macrophages along peripheral motor neuron axons react to neurodegeneration. Modifying reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling in peripheral macrophages, using bone marrow cell replacement, reduces both macrophage and microglia inflammatory response, delays pathology and increases survival in ALS mouse models.

An intracellular molecule acts in a context-dependent manner to suppress responses to irrelevant guidance cues during axon development.

Decoding the firing of individual spinal motor neurons enables the offline control of prosthetic limbs.

In zebrafish, components of the extracellular matrix help to direct regenerating motor axons to their original targets.

The subtype of motor neurons that is most likely to degenerate early in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is prone to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in mice, owing to low levels of SIL1, an ER-associated protein.