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Published Online March 26, 2009
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1171320

Reports

Submitted on January 23, 2009
Accepted on March 16, 2009

A Frazzled/DCC-Dependent Transcriptional Switch Regulates Midline Axon Guidance

Long Yang 1, David S. Garbe 1, Greg J. Bashaw 1*

1 Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 1113 BRB2/3, 421 Curie Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Greg J. Bashaw , E-mail: gbashaw{at}mail.med.upenn.edu

Precise wiring of the nervous system depends on coordinating the action of conserved families of proteins that direct axons to their appropriate targets. Slit-Robo repulsion and Netrin-DCC (Frazzled) attraction must be tightly regulated to control midline axon guidance in vertebrates and invertebrates, but the mechanism mediating this regulation is poorly defined. Here, we show that the Fra receptor has two genetically separable functions in regulating midline guidance in Drosophila. First, Fra mediates canonical chemoattraction in response to Netrin, and second, it functions independently of Netrin to activate commissureless transcription, allowing attraction to be coupled to the down-regulation of repulsion in pre-crossing commissural axons.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Crossing the Line.
T. Kidd (2009)
Science 324, 893-894
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)