Nina Hoyer, Philip Zielke, Chun Hu, Meike Petersen, Kathrin Sauter, Robin Scharrenberg, Yun Peng, Charles C Kim, Chun Han, Jay Z Parrish, Peter Soba
Dendrite morphogenesis is a highly regulated process that gives rise to stereotyped receptive fields, which are required for proper neuronal connectivity and function. Specific classes of neurons, including Drosophila class IV dendritic arborization (C4da) neurons, also feature complete space-filling growth of dendrites. In this system, we have identified the substrate-derived TGF-β ligand maverick (mav) as a developmental signal promoting space-filling growth through the neuronal Ret receptor. Both are necessary for radial spreading of C4da neuron dendrites, and Ret is required for neuronal uptake of Mav...
August 28, 2018: Cell Reports