Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a lethal neurodegenerative disease that occurs in childhood, is caused by the misexpression of the survival of motor neuron (SMN) protein in motor neurons. It is still unclear whether activating motor units in SMA corrects the delay in the postnatal maturation of the motor unit resulting in an enhanced neuroprotection. In the present work, we demonstrate that an a...

genes that control motor neuron induction, subtype identity, and target specificity. Mice were mutagenized with ENU and outcrossed to an HB9-GFP transgenic reporter line that expresses GFP in spinal motor neurons and their axons. Litters were analyzed by fluorescence microscopy for recessive mutations that affect motor neuron induction and motor axon projection pattern. We have screened 137 F1 ...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), characterized by specific degeneration of spinal motor neurons, is caused by mutations in the survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene and subsequent decreased levels of functional SMN. How the deficiency of SMN, a ubiquitously expressed protein, leads to spinal motor neuron-specific degeneration in SMA patients remains unknown. In this study, we examined the role of S...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), characterized by specific degeneration of spinal motor neurons, is caused by mutations in the survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene and subsequent decreased levels of functional SMN. How the deficiency of SMN, a ubiquitously expressed protein, leads to spinal motor neuron-specific degeneration in SMA patients remains unknown. In this study, we examined the role of S...