TY - JOUR
T1 - Growth cone chemotaxis
AU - Mortimer, Duncan
AU - Fothergill, Thomas
AU - Pujic, Zac
AU - Richards, Linda J.
AU - Goodhill, Geoffrey J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award (D.M.), an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Fellowship (L.J.R.) and grants from the Australian Research Council (Discovery Grant DP0666126), NHMRC (Project Grants 456003 and 456026) and the March of Dimes Foundation for Birth Defects.
PY - 2008/2
Y1 - 2008/2
N2 - Wiring up the nervous system depends on the precise guidance of axonal growth cones to their targets. A key mechanism underlying this guidance is chemotaxis, whereby growth cones detect and follow molecular gradients. Although recent work has uncovered many of the molecules involved in this process, the mechanisms underlying chemotactic axon guidance are still unclear. Here we compare growth cones with neutrophils and Dictyostelium discoideum, systems for which a clear conceptual framework for chemotaxis has recently emerged. This analogy suggests particular ways in which the three key steps of directional sensing, polarisation and motility might be implemented in chemotaxing growth cones.
AB - Wiring up the nervous system depends on the precise guidance of axonal growth cones to their targets. A key mechanism underlying this guidance is chemotaxis, whereby growth cones detect and follow molecular gradients. Although recent work has uncovered many of the molecules involved in this process, the mechanisms underlying chemotactic axon guidance are still unclear. Here we compare growth cones with neutrophils and Dictyostelium discoideum, systems for which a clear conceptual framework for chemotaxis has recently emerged. This analogy suggests particular ways in which the three key steps of directional sensing, polarisation and motility might be implemented in chemotaxing growth cones.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=39149145141&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.tins.2007.11.008
DO - 10.1016/j.tins.2007.11.008
M3 - Review article
C2 - 18201774
AN - SCOPUS:39149145141
SN - 0166-2236
VL - 31
SP - 90
EP - 98
JO - Trends in Neurosciences
JF - Trends in Neurosciences
IS - 2
ER -