Venous endothelin modulates responsiveness of cardiac sympathetic axons to arterial semaphorin
Abstract
Developing neurons of the peripheral nervous system reach their targets via cues that support directional growth, a process known as axon guidance. In investigating how sympathetic axons reach the heart in mice, we discovered that a combination of guidance cues are employed in sequence to refine axon outgrowth, a process we term second-order guidance. Specifically, endothelin-1 induces sympathetic neurons expressing the receptor Ednra to project to the vena cavae leading to the heart. Endothelin signaling in turn induces expression of the repulsive receptor Plexin-A4, via induction of the transcription factor MEF2C. In the absence of endothelin or plexin signaling, sympathetic neurons misproject to incorrect competing vascular trajectories (the dorsal aorta and intercostal arteries). The same anatomical and physiological consequences occur in Ednra+/-; Plxna4+/- double heterozygotes, genetically confirming functional interaction. Second-order axon guidance therefore multiplexes a smaller number of guidance cues in sequential fashion, allowing precise refinement of axon trajectories.
Data availability
Previously published ChIP-seq datasets available as BigWig files (Telese et al. 2015) were uploaded and visualized on the UCSC Genome Browser.
-
LRP8-Reelin-Regulated Neuronal Enhancer Signature Underlying Learning and Memory FormationNCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE66710.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS062901)
- Takako Makita
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS083265)
- Takako Makita
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL064658)
- Brian L Black
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL136182)
- Brian L Black
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All experiments with animals complied with National Institute of Health guidelines and were reviewed and approved by the Children's Hospital Los Angeles (274-18), UCSF (AN171342) or MUSC (2018-00627) Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
Copyright
© 2019, Poltavski et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 1,184
- views
-
- 163
- downloads
-
- 6
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Further reading
-
- Cell Biology
- Developmental Biology
Chondrocyte columns, which are a hallmark of growth plate architecture, play a central role in bone elongation. Columns are formed by clonal expansion following rotation of the division plane, resulting in a stack of cells oriented parallel to the growth direction. In this work, we analyzed hundreds of Confetti multicolor clones in growth plates of mouse embryos using a pipeline comprising 3D imaging and algorithms for morphometric analysis. Surprisingly, analysis of the elevation angles between neighboring pairs of cells revealed that most cells did not display the typical stacking pattern associated with column formation, implying incomplete rotation of the division plane. Morphological analysis revealed that although embryonic clones were elongated, they formed clusters oriented perpendicular to the growth direction. Analysis of growth plates of postnatal mice revealed both complex columns, composed of ordered and disordered cell stacks, and small, disorganized clusters located in the outer edges. Finally, correlation between the temporal dynamics of the ratios between clusters and columns and between bone elongation and expansion suggests that clusters may promote expansion, whereas columns support elongation. Overall, our findings support the idea that modulations of division plane rotation of proliferating chondrocytes determines the formation of either clusters or columns, a multifunctional design that regulates morphogenesis throughout pre- and postnatal bone growth. Broadly, this work provides a new understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying growth plate activity and bone elongation during development.
-
- Developmental Biology
- Neuroscience
Multiple embryonic origins give rise to forebrain oligodendrocytes (OLs), yet controversies and uncertainty exist regarding their differential contributions. We established intersectional and subtractional strategies to genetically fate map OLs produced by medial ganglionic eminence/preoptic area (MGE/POA), lateral/caudal ganglionic eminences (LGE/CGE), and dorsal pallium in the mouse brain. We found that, contrary to the canonical view, LGE/CGE-derived OLs make minimum contributions to the neocortex and corpus callosum, but dominate piriform cortex and anterior commissure. Additionally, MGE/POA-derived OLs, instead of being entirely eliminated, make small but sustained contribution to cortex with a distribution pattern distinctive from those derived from the dorsal origin. Our study provides a revised and more comprehensive view of cortical and white matter OL origins, and established valuable new tools and strategies for future OL studies.