Neuronal Migration

Kit Wong, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Jane Y Wu, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Yi Rao, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Published online: October 2002

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0000796

Cell migration is a major event in neural development and its abnormalities cause human diseases. Cell–cell interactions are important for neuronal migration. Secreted proteins can guide the direction of neuronal migration through intracellular signal transduction pathways that regulate cytoskeletal organization.

Keywords: cell migration; neural development; guidance; neurological diseases

Figure 1. Examples of radially and tangentially migrating neurons in the neocortex. Shown in blue are radially migrating cells that move along glial fibres (brown lines in the inset) from the ventricular zone towards the pia. Shown in red are tangentially migrating cells that migrate from the ganglionic eminence to the neocortex. V, ventricle. Adapted from Lumsden A and Gulisano M (1997) Science 278: 402–403.
Figure 2. Neuronal migration in the rostral migratory stream (RMS) revealed by labelling with a lipophilic dye (DiI). A piece of DiI crystal (indicated by a red dot) was placed in the SVZa region in a live forebrain slice. After overnight culture, labelled cells migrated tangentially into the olfactory bulb in the RMS as observed under a fluorescent microscope.
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 Further Reading
    Bentivoglio M and Mazzarello P (1999) The history of radial glia. Brain Research Bulletin 49: 305–315.
    Corbin JG, Nery S and Fishell G (2001) Telencephalic cells take a tangent: non-radial migration in the mammalian forebrain. Nature Neuroscience 4: 1177–1182.
    Culotti JG and Merz DC (1998) DCC and netrins. Current Opinion in Cell Biology 10: 609–613.
    Gupta A, Tsai LH and Wynshaw-Boris A (2002) Life is a journey: a genetic look at neocortical development. Nature Reviews 3: 342–355.
    book Hatten ME and Heintz N (1998) "Neurogenesis and migration". In: Zigmond M (ed.) Fundamentals of Neuroscience, pp. 451–479. New York: Academic Press.
    Marin O and Rubenstein JLR (2001) A long, remarkable journey: tangential migration in the telencephalon. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2: 780–790.
    Rakic P (1990) Principles of neural cell migration. Experientia 46: 882–891.
    Rice DS and Curran T (2001) Role of the reelin signaling pathway in central nervous system development. Annual Review of Neuroscience 24: 1005–1039.
    Ross EM and Walsh CA (2001) Human brain malformations and their lessons for neuronal migration. Annual Review of Neuroscience 24: 1041–1070.
    Wingate RJ (2001) The rhombic lip and early cerebellar development. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 11: 82–88.
    Wong K, Ren XR, Huang YZ et al. (2001) Signal transduction in neuronal migration. Roles of GTPase activating proteins and the small GTPase Cdc42 in the Slit–Robo pathway. Cell 107: 209–221.

Related Sub-Topics:

Organisation of the Nervous System | Neurons | Nervous System Development | Intracellular and Extracellular Signalling | Cell Cytoskeleton | Development of Vertebrate Nervous System | Cell Differentiation and Stem Cells
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Article Title: Neuronal Migration
 
How to Cite close
Wong, Kit, Wu, Jane Y, and Rao, Yi(Oct 2002) Neuronal Migration. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0000796]