Identificatie van moleculaire determinanten van axon-dendriet specificaties en hun relatie met neuronale migratie en mentaal retardatie aandoeningen.

How neurons acquire a polarized morphology is a fundamental issue in developmental neurobiology. Today's most accepted view says that polarization begins when one among several neurites with similar morphological characteristics undergoes fast growth thus becoming the neurons' axon. On the other hand, work from the past and recent data showed that in vivo polarization is instructed even before multiple neurites arise. Furthermore, recent data indicate that a polarized cytoplasm sets the conditions for polarization as soon as neurons are born, still in the round morphology state. Moreover, the polarized cytoplasm also determines how neurons migrate and in vivo, in vertebrates, neurons migrate before establishing their final morphology. Thus neuronal migration might be relevant to defines how neurons get polarized. We aim at extending our basic understanding on the mechanisms of polarity by putting it in the context of migration. This may be of relevance, in addition to basic knowledge of this fundamental question, to the understanding of genetic diseases with migration defects.

Trefwoorden:Genes², Migration, Hippocampus, Polarity, Dendrite, Axon