Axon guidance Flashcards
what prevents growth cone collapse?
ligands for receptors on the regrowth cone
ere can axon guidance cues be found?
- on the ECM or diffuse from the target
what are the 4 families of axon cues?
- slits and their receptors
- ephrins and EPH receptors
- semaphorins (neuropilin and plexin)
- VEGF-A and its receptor
what do ROBO receptors bind to?
SLIT ligands
what so SLIT ligands bind to?
the robo receptors
what do EPH receptors bind to?
ephrins
what do ephrins bind to?
EPH receptors
what do semaphorins bind to?
neuropilin and an A-type plexi
what so neurpilin and A-type plexus bind to?
Semaphorins
what does the fact that both the EPH and the ephrins have intracellular domain mean?
there can be bidirectional signalling
what is so special about SEMA3E?
it can bind the A type plexin (plexinD1) without the neuropillin
what does the fact there are many combinations of the 3 semaphoring and 4 neuroplexins and 2 neuropillins mean?
many combinations can result for- when you have limited genes you can have lots of outcomes
what can neurpillin bind that isn’t semaphorin?
- VEGF164
when these bind what do they normally activate?
the PI3K pathways because this is involved in cytoskeletal
what is an in vivo approach to axon guidance studies?
- in situ hybridisation to monitor the expression of the candidate gene
- antibody labelling to visualise axons relative to their axon guidance cue
- axon tracing by lipophilic dye diffusion in axonal membranes
what is an ex vivo approach to looking at axon guidance cues?
- explant assays of neural tissues
- neurons differentiated from proliferative progenitor cell lines
what is an example of an ex vivo approach?
explant spinal cord tissue and explant a source of signal and see if the axons will grow towards it