The characteristics and distribution pattern of retinal afferent terminals making synaptic contacts on narrow field vertical neurons in the stratum griseum superficiale of the rabbit superior colliculus were studied using the Golgi-gold substitution technique in combination with either autoradiographic or degenerative methods. At the level of light microscopy, identified gold-toned vertical neu...

Control of translation is a fundamental source of regulation in gene expression. The induction of protein synthesis by brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) critically contributes to enduring modifications of synaptic function, but how BDNF selectively affects only a minority of expressed mRNAs is poorly understood. We report that BDNF rapidly elevates Dicer, increasing mature miRNA levels a...

Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule (DSCAM) is required for axon guidance and dendrite arborization. How DSCAM functions in vertebrates is not well understood. Here we show that DSCAM is expressed on commissural axons and interacts with Netrin-1, a prototypical guidance cue for commissural axons. The knockdown of DSCAM by specific siRNA or blockage of DSCAM signaling by overexpression of a mut...

In the murine cerebral cortex, mammalian homologues of the Cux family transcription factors, Cux1 and Cux2, have been identified as restricted molecular markers for the upper layer (II-IV) pyramidal neurons. However, their functions in cortical development are largely unknown. Here we report that increasing the intracellular level of Cux1, but not Cux2, reduced the dendritic complexity of cultu...

Ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is a multistep protein degradation machinery implicated in many diseases. In the nervous system, UPS regulates remodeling and degradation of neuronal processes and is linked to Wallerian axonal degeneration, though the ubiquitin ligases that confer substrate specificity remain unknown. Having shown previously that class IV dendritic arborization (C4da) sensory ...

The organization of functional neural circuits requires the precise and coordinated control of cell-cell interactions at nearly all stages of development, including neuronal differentiation, neuronal migration, axon outgrowth, dendrite arborization, and synapse formation and stabilization. This coordination is brought about by the concerted action of a large number of cell surface receptors, wh...

Disruption of neuronal morphology contributes to the pathology of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are unknown. Here, we show that postnatal deletion of Cdh1, a cofactor of the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) ubiquitin ligase in neurons [Cdh1 conditional knockout (cKO)], disrupts dendrite arborization and cau...

Normal functioning of the nervous system requires precise regulation of dendritic shape and synaptic connectivity. Here, we report a severe impairment of dendritic structures in the cerebellum and motor cortex of c-Jun N-terminal kinase 1 (JNK1)-deficient mice. Using an unbiased screen for candidate mediators, we identify the dendrite-specific high-molecular-weight microtubule-associated protei...

The establishment of cell type-specific dendritic arborization patterns is a key phase in the assembly of neuronal circuitry that facilitates the integration and processing of synaptic and sensory input. Although studies in Drosophila and vertebrate systems have identified a variety of factors that regulate dendrite branch formation, the molecular mechanisms that control this process remain poo...

Localizing messenger RNAs at specific subcellular sites is a conserved mechanism for targeting the synthesis of cytoplasmic proteins to distinct subcellular domains, thereby generating the asymmetric protein distributions necessary for cellular and developmental polarity. However, the full range of transcripts that are asymmetrically distributed in specialized cell types, and the significance o...