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r-articles: Kazunobu Sawamoto, Hynek Wichterle, Oscar Gonzalez-Perez, Jeremy A. Cholfin, Masayuki Yamada, Nathalie Spassky, Noel S. Murcia, Jose Manuel Garcia-Verdugo, Oscar Marin, John L. R. Rubenstein, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Hideyuki Okano, and Arturo Alvarez-Buylla New Neurons Follow the Flow of Cerebrospinal Fluid in the Adult Brain Science 2006; 311: 629-632 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Synchronicity indeed

Maurice A.M. van Steensel   (17 February 2006)

Synchronicity indeed 17 February 2006
Maurice A.M. van Steensel, dermatologist University Hospital Maastricht Respond to this E-Letter: Re: Synchronicity indeed	I read this paper with great interest, enjoying the finding that the beating of cilia in the brain will direct neuroblasts like a conveyor belt. I think it might be of interest to the readership of Science, and perhaps the authors of this paper, to draw attention to recent Nature Genetics papers in which the genetic basis of Meckel syndrome was elucidated (1, 2). This severe developmental disorder is characterized, among other symptoms, by exencephaly, an abnormality of the brain that results from a failure of the rostral neural tube to close. It turns out that at least one of the Meckel proteins (MKS1) is very likely a ciliary component! Together with the present report, these findings to me suggest that, like several other developmental processes such as left-right determination, neuronal migration and patterning may first and foremost be dependent upon the beating of cilia. Processes such as neural tube closure may be particularly dependent. I think that the ciliary conveyor belt is operative throughout the neural tube -- why shouldn't it? Thus, it should be of interest to see whether other neural tube closure defects, such as spina bifida, might be caused by aberrant ciliarry beating. It should not be too difficult to create a mouse system where this process is disturbed in the caudal neural tube. References 1. M. Kyttäla et al., Nat. Genet. 38, 155-157 (2006). 2. U. M. Smith et al., Nat. Genet. 38, 191-196 (2006).