How does a dendrite grow? The answer to that question is central to understanding development of neurons, and thus to understanding entire nervous systems. But while the molecular signals underlying axon development have been relatively well described, comparatively little is known about the mechanisms of dendrite development, especially at its earliest stages. In this issue of PLoS Biology, Le...

The firing evoked by injection of simulated barrages of EPSCs into the proximal dendrite of layer 5 pyramidal neurons is greater than when comparable inputs are injected into the soma. This boosting is mediated by dendritic Na+ conductances. However, the presence of other active conductances in the dendrites, some of which are nonuniformly distributed, suggests that the degree of boosting may d...

The morphology of the dendritic tree is critical to neuronal function and neural circuit wiring. Several Wnt family members have been demonstrated to play important roles in dendrite development. However, the Wnt receptors responsible for mediating this process remain largely elusive. Using primary hippocampal neuronal cultures as a model system, we report that Frizzled4 (Fzd4), a member of the...

All aging individuals will develop some degree of decline in cognitive capacity as time progresses. The molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to age-related cognitive decline are still not fully understood. Through our previous research, we discovered that active neural progenitor cells selectively become more quiescent in response to aging, thus leading to the decline of neurogenesis in th...

The hypothalamic ventromedial nucleus (VMH) displays sexual dichotomies in its overall size, neurochemistry, and neuronal morphology. These differences may underlie the sex differences observed in functions mediated by the VMH, such as reproductive behaviors and energy balance. A previous Golgi impregnation analysis of VMH dendrites reported sex differences in total dendrite length in the ventr...

We investigated the role of dendritic spine morphology in spine-dendrite calcium communication using novel experimental and theoretical approaches. A transient rise in [Ca2+]i was produced in individual spine heads of Fluo-4-loaded cultured hippocampal neurons by flash photolysis of caged calcium. Following flash photolysis in the spine head, a delayed [Ca2+]i transient was detected in the pare...

Neurons develop dendritic arbors in cell type-specific patterns. Using growing Purkinje cells in culture as a model, we performed a long-term time-lapse observation of dendrite branch dynamics to understand the rules that govern the characteristic space-filling dendrites. We found that dendrite architecture was sculpted by a combination of reproducible dynamic processes, including constant tip ...

A free dendrite growth under forced fluid flow is analyzed for solidification of a nonisothermal binary system. Using an approach to dendrite growth developed by Bouissou and Pelcé [Phys. Rev. A 40, 6673 (1989)], the analysis is presented for the parabolic dendrite interface with small anisotropy of surface energy growing at arbitrary Péclet numbers. The stable growth mode is obtained from the ...

Neurons extend elaborate dendrites studded with spines. Unexpectedly, this cellular sculpting is regulated by the origin recognition complex -- the core machinery for initiating DNA replication.