Open AccessA sensory axon repellent secreted from ventral spinal cord explants is neutralized by antibodies raised against collapsin-1
Author(s) -
Iain T. Shepherd,
Yuling Luo,
Frances Lefcort,
Louis F. Reichardt,
Jonathan A. Raper
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.754
H-Index - 325
eISSN - 1477-9129
pISSN - 0950-1991
DOI - 10.1242/dev.124.7.1377
Subject(s) - biology , spinal cord , neurite , anatomy , sensory system , cord , axon , gdf7 , dorsum , neuroscience , ventral nerve cord , central nervous system , embryonic stem cell , in vitro , biochemistry , gene , geometry , mathematics
During embryogenesis, different subclasses of sensory neurons extend central projections to specific locations in the spinal cord. Muscle and cutaneous afferents initially project to the same location in the dorsal cord. Later, specific muscle afferents leave other afferents behind and project into the ventral cord. Previous studies have shown that ventral spinal cord explants secrete a repellent for sensory neurites. We now find that antibodies to collapsin-1 neutralize this repellent activity. Additional data suggest that all afferents respond to collapsin-1 when they are first confined to the dorsal cord, but that ventrally projecting muscle afferents become collapsin-1 insensitive as they project into the ventral cord. Our results suggest that the transient dorsal expression of collapsin-1 prevents all efferents from entering the cord early and sustained ventral expression prevents dorsally terminating afferents from entering the ventral cord later.