Developmental Wiring of Specific Neurons Is Regulated by RET-1/Nogo-A in Caenorhabditis elegans

摘要

Nogo-A is a membrane-bound protein that functions to inhibit neuronal migration, adhesion, and neurite outgrowth during development. In the mature nervous system, Nogo-A stabilizes neuronal wiring to inhibit neuronal plasticity and regeneration after injury. Here, we show that , the sole Nogo-A homolog in Caenorhabditis elegans, is required to control developmental wiring of a specific subset of neurons. In deletion mutant animals, specific ventral nerve cord axons are misguided where they fail to respect the ventral midline boundary. We found that is expressed in multiple neurons during development, and, through mosaic analysis, showed that controls axon guidance in a cell-autonomous manner. Finally, as in mammals, regulates ephrin expression, and dysregulation of the ephrin ligand is partially responsible for the mutant axonal defects. Together, our data present a previously unidentified function for in the nervous system of C. elegans.