Disentangling Self-Avoidance

摘要 树突是神经元接收信息的精细过程，通常是高度分枝的过程 他们的环境。树突的形态对于细胞的连通性和健康功能很重要。 神经系统。因此，了解控制树突形态发生和发育的基因至关重要。 维修。树突和轴突形态的一个关键的广泛保守的特征是它们均匀分布 跨地区，没有重叠。同一细胞的乔木之间的排斥力，称为自我回避 果蝇躯体感觉神经元两条主要通路的控制 树枝晶形态发生。一条途径支持树突-树突识别和排斥，并通过 由唐氏综合征细胞黏附分子1(Dscam1)表达。在没有这条路径的情况下，树突相互交叉 另一些则变得纠缠在一起，留下部分接受野未被覆盖，而其他部分则过度神经支配。 影响树突膜是否可用于接触和识别的另一种途径是 由细胞外基质的整合素受体介导。在没有这种途径的情况下，树枝晶-底物 相互作用占主导地位，树突被附近细胞的膜包围。重要的是要 区分这两条途径，以便更好地为枝晶发育提供分子基础 明白了。然而，对于不同的基因如何影响这两条途径，我们仍然知之甚少。 因此，枝晶-枝晶和枝晶-衬底之间的相互作用还不是很清楚。因此，潜在的 这些研究告诉我们对更复杂的哺乳动物系统的理解还没有完全实现。 我们将使用一种简单但强大的技术来分析树枝晶-衬底之间的相互作用，以建立更清晰的 对自我回避途径的理解。我们希望所获得的见解可以让我们了解 发育出更复杂的大脑，与自己的大脑更相似。

SUMMARY Dendrites are the fine, and often highly branched, processes through which neurons receive information from their environment. The morphologies of dendrites are important for connectivity and healthy functioning of the nervous system. Thus, it is critical to understand the genes that control dendrite morphogenesis and maintenance. One key broadly conserved feature of dendrite and axon morphology is their even spreading across territories without overlap. Repulsion between arbors of the same cell, termed self-avoidance, is under the control of two major pathways in Drosophila somatosensory neurons, a powerful model for studies of dendrite morphogenesis. One pathway supports dendrite-dendrite recognition and repulsion and is mediated by Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule 1 (Dscam1). In the absence of this pathway, dendrites cross each other and become tangled, leaving parts of their receptive field uncovered and other parts over-innervated. Another pathway that impacts whether dendritic membranes are available for contact and recognition is mediated by integrin receptors for the extracellular matrix. In the absence of this pathway, dendrite-substrate interactions predominate and dendrites become enclosed by membranes of nearby cells. It is important to discriminate between these two pathways so that the molecular basis for dendrite development can be better understood. However, we still have relatively few insights into how different genes impact these two pathways, so both dendrite-dendrite and dendrites-substrate interactions are not well known. As a result, the potential for these studies to inform our understanding of more complex mammalian systems has not been fully realized. We will use a simple but powerful technique for assaying dendrite-substrate interactions to build a clearer understanding of self-avoidance pathways. We expect that the insights gained can inform us about the development of more complex brains that are more similar to own.