Neuronal Microdifferentiation
- A. Matus,
- G. Huber, and
- R. Bernhardt
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
When nerve cells in the developing brain stop dividing, they enter a phase of terminal differentiation during which they extend axons and dendrites and make synapses with one another. This process involves the development of separate microstructural domains within the nerve cell, a process of neuronal microdifferentiation. There are several outstanding basic questions about the cellular mechanisms that control this process. For example, how does a simple neuroblast manage to make two kinds of processes, axons and dendrites, that differ so strikingly in both structure and function? What controls the size and degree of branching of axons and dendrites? And what determines the numbers of synapses made between two neurons? Whatever molecular events drive and regulate these changes play a critical role in determining synaptic connectivity and hence signal transmission in the mature brain.
Our approach to studying these mechanisms is to use antibodies as specific reagents for identifying molecules...
