Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 3 May 1968:
Vol. 160. no. 3827, pp. 543 - 545
DOI: 10.1126/science.160.3827.543
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Neuronal Specification of Cutaneous Nerves through Connections with Skin Grafts in the Frog

Marcus Jacobson 1 and Robert E. Baker 2

1 Jenkins Department of Biophysics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218
2 Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907

Skin grafts were rotated 180 degrees in frog tadpoles. After metamorphosis, cutaneous reflexes were tested, and the receptive fields of cutaneous nerves were mapped electrophysiologically. Accurately localized limb movements were elicited by mechanical stimulation of normal skin, or of dorsal skin reimplanted on the back after 180-degree rotation. Reflexes misdirected to the original site of the stimulated skin were elicited from dorsoventrally inverted grafts, but not from anteroposteriorly inverted grafts. In most cases, the local nerves supplied the grafts, and each nerve entered the skin within its own receptive field. This observation eliminated the possibility that misdirected reflexes were due to selective regrowth of cutaneous nerves. We concluded that cutaneous nerves formed central synaptic associations which were specified by their new terminal connections with grafted skin.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Rapid Assembly of Functional Presynaptic Boutons Triggered by Adhesive Contacts.
A. L. Lucido, F. Suarez Sanchez, P. Thostrup, A. V. Kwiatkowski, S. Leal-Ortiz, G. Gopalakrishnan, D. Liazoghli, W. Belkaid, R. B. Lennox, P. Grutter, et al. (2009)
J. Neurosci. 29, 12449-12466
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Repair of Specific Neuronal Pathways in the Leech.
D. V. Essen and J. K. S. Jansen (1976)
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 40, 495-502
   Abstract »    PDF »
Development of Specific Neuronal Connections.
M. Jacobson (1969)
Science 163, 543-547
   PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)