Akiko Terauchi, Patricia Yee, Erin M Johnson-Venkatesh, Mariel P Seiglie, Lisa Kim, Julia C Pitino, Eli Kritzer, Qiyu Zhang, Jie Zhou, Yulong Li, David D Ginty, Wei-Chung A Lee, Hisashi Umemori
Dopaminergic projections regulate various brain functions and are implicated in many neuropsychiatric disorders. There are two anatomically and functionally distinct dopaminergic projections connecting the midbrain to striatum: nigrostriatal, which controls movement, and mesolimbic, which regulates motivation. However, how these discrete dopaminergic synaptic connections are established is unknown. Through an unbiased search, we identify that two groups of antagonistic TGF-β family members, bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)6/BMP2 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β2, regulate dopaminergic synapse development of nigrostriatal and mesolimbic neurons, respectively...
August 31, 2023: Cell