Potential dual molecular interaction of the Drosophila 7-pass transmembrane cadherin Flamingo in dendritic morphogenesis
Abstract
Seven-pass transmembrane cadherins (7-TM cadherins) play pleiotropic roles in epithelial planar cell polarity, shaping dendritic arbors and in axonal outgrowth. In contrast to their role in planar polarity, how 7-TM cadherins control dendritic and axonal outgrowth at the molecular level is largely unknown. Therefore, we performed extensive structure-function analysis of the Drosophila 7-TM cadherin Flamingo (Fmi) and investigated the activities of individual mutant forms mostly in dendritogenesis of dendritic arborization (da) neurons. One of the fmi-mutant phenotypes was overgrowth of branches in the early stage of dendrite development. In da neurons but not in their adjacent non-neuronal cells, expression of a truncated form (deltaN) that lacks the entire cadherin repeat sequence, rescues flies--at least partially--from this phenotype. Another phenotype is observed at a later stage, when dendritic terminals outgrowing from the contralateral sides meet and then avoid each other. In the fmi mutant, by contrast, those branches overlapped. Overexpression of the deltaN form on the wild-type background phenocopied the overlap phenotype in the mutant, and analysis in heterologous systems supported the possibility that this effect mi...Continue Reading
References
Citations
Golden Goal collaborates with Flamingo in conferring synaptic-layer specificity in the visual system
Principles of branch dynamics governing shape characteristics of cerebellar Purkinje cell dendrites.
The atypical cadherin Flamingo is required for sensory axon advance beyond intermediate target cells
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