Dendrites achieve characteristic spacing patterns during development to ensure appropriate coverage of territories. Mechanisms of dendrite positioning via repulsive dendrite-dendrite interactions are beginning to be elucidated, but the control, and importance, of dendrite positioning relative to their substrate is poorly understood. We found that dendritic branches of Drosophila dendritic arbor...

Neurons receive excitatory or sensory inputs through their dendrites, which often branch extensively to form unique neuron-specific structures. How neurons regulate the formation of their particular arbor is only partially understood. In genetic screens using the multidendritic arbor of PVD somatosensory neurons in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, we identified a mutation in the ER stress s...

Apolipoprotein (apo) E4 is the leading genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), and it has a gene dose-dependent effect on the risk and age of onset of AD. Although apoE4 is primarily produced by astrocytes in the brain, neurons can also produce apoE4 under stress conditions. ApoE4 is known to inhibit neurite outgrowth and spine development in vitro and in vivo, but the potential influ...

Even though many extracellular factors have been identified as promoters of general dendritic growth and branching, little is known about the cell-intrinsic modulators that allow neurons to sculpt distinctive patterns of dendrite arborization. Here, we identify Lrig1, a nervous system-enriched LRR protein, as a key physiological regulator of dendrite complexity of hippocampal pyramidal neurons....

BACKGROUND Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) have been used as flame retardants and are becoming a ubiquitous environmental contaminant. Adverse effects in the developing brain are of great health concern. OBJECTIVE We investigated the effect of PBDEs/hydroxylated PBDEs (OH-PBDEs) on thyroid hormone (TH) receptor (TR)-mediated transcription and on TH-induced dendrite arborization of cere...

Deficits in the Notch pathway are involved in a number of neurologic diseases associated with mental retardation or/and dementia. The mechanisms by which Notch dysregulation are associated with mental retardation and dementia are poorly understood. We found that Notch1 is highly expressed in the adult-born immature neurons in the hippocampus of mice. Retrovirus mediated knockout of notch1 in si...

Neurons develop highly stereotyped receptive fields by coordinated growth of their dendrites. Although cell surface cues play a major role in this process, few dendrite specific signals have been identified to date. We conducted an in vivo RNAi screen in Drosophila class IV dendritic arborization (C4da) neurons and identified the conserved Ret receptor, known to play a role in axon guidance, as...

The microtubule-based molecular motor dynein is essential for proper neuronal morphogenesis. Dynein activity is regulated by cofactors, and the role(s) of these cofactors in shaping neuronal structure are still being elucidated. Using Drosophila melanogaster, we reveal that the loss of the dynein cofactor NudE results in abnormal dendrite arborization. Our data show that NudE associates with Go...

BACKGROUND Dendrites often display remarkably complex and diverse morphologies that are influenced by developmental and environmental cues. Neuroplasticity in response to adverse environmental conditions entails both hypertrophy and resorption of dendrites. How dendrites rapidly alter morphology in response to unfavorable environmental conditions is unclear. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans ...

In mice, genetically engineered knockout of the Dapper Antagonist of Catenin-1 (Dact1) locus, which encodes a scaffold protein involved in Wnt signaling, leads to decreased excitatory input formation on dendrites of developing forebrain neurons. We have previously demonstrated this in both (excitatory, glutamatergic) pyramidal neurons of the hippocampus and in (inhibitory GABAergic) interneuron...