Endoglycan plays a role in axon guidance by modulating cell adhesion
- University of Zurich, Switzerland
Abstract
Axon navigation depends on the interactions between guidance molecules along the trajectory and specific receptors on the growth cone. However, our in vitro and in vivo studies on the role of Endoglycan demonstrate that in addition to specific guidance cue – receptor interactions, axon guidance depends on fine-tuning of cell-cell adhesion. Endoglycan, a sialomucin, plays a role in axon guidance in the central nervous system of chicken embryos, but it is neither an axon guidance cue nor a receptor. Rather Endoglycan acts as a negative regulator of molecular interactions based on evidence from in vitro experiments demonstrating reduced adhesion of growth cones . In the absence of Endoglycan, commissural axons fail to properly navigate the midline of the spinal cord. Taken together, our in vivo and in vitro results support the hypothesis that Endoglycan acts as a negative regulator of cell-cell adhesion, in commissural axon guidance.
Data availability
All data generated and analyzed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.
Article and author information
Author details
Alexandre Dumoulin
Funding
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Esther T Stoeckli
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (Brain Plasticy and Repair)
- Esther T Stoeckli
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Carol A Mason, Columbia University, United States
Version history
- Received: November 10, 2020
- Accepted: February 25, 2021
- Accepted Manuscript published: March 2, 2021 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: March 10, 2021 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2021, Baeriswyl 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.
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Endoglycan plays a role in axon guidance by modulating cell adhesion
eLife 10:e64767.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.64767
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