Figures
Neuropilin-1 mediates sensory motor axon interactions.
During embryonic development, growing spinal projections establish complex neural networks with their peripheral targets. For proper limb innervation, motor and sensory axons converge in the brachial plexus to form spinal nerves. Wholemount staining of a mouse E10.5 embryo captures the growing sensory (red, neurofilament staining) and motor axons (green, Hb9::eGFP) in the brachial plexus of the forelimb. The study by Huettl et al. (e1001020) demonstrates that removal of the axon guidance receptor Neuropilin-1 from sensory neurons (Npn-1cond -/-;Ht-Pa-Cre+) results in breaking of the tight coupling between sensory and motor axons and defasciculation of sensory and, surprisingly, motor trajectories.
Image Credit: Rosa-Eva Huettl.
Citation: (2011) PLoS Biology Issue Image | Vol. 9(2) February 2011. PLoS Biol 9(2): ev09.i02. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pbio.v09.i02
Published: February 17, 2011
Copyright: © 2011 Huettl. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
During embryonic development, growing spinal projections establish complex neural networks with their peripheral targets. For proper limb innervation, motor and sensory axons converge in the brachial plexus to form spinal nerves. Wholemount staining of a mouse E10.5 embryo captures the growing sensory (red, neurofilament staining) and motor axons (green, Hb9::eGFP) in the brachial plexus of the forelimb. The study by Huettl et al. (e1001020) demonstrates that removal of the axon guidance receptor Neuropilin-1 from sensory neurons (Npn-1cond -/-;Ht-Pa-Cre+) results in breaking of the tight coupling between sensory and motor axons and defasciculation of sensory and, surprisingly, motor trajectories.
Image Credit: Rosa-Eva Huettl.