Axon, Ax-off

Early in development, long strands grow from the beginnings of brain cells like roots from a seed. They spread together weaving a complex network of signal-carrying wires throughout the brain. The growth of these fibres, called axons (bottom part of the mouse brain section pictured, with brain cells coloured), is crucial to healthy development, but not fully understood. To learn more, researchers investigated the role of a particular protein thought to be involved, called RhoA. By experimentally silencing and activating RhoA, they found that it halts this axon extension, and in doing so precisely regulates when and where each one grows, ensuring healthy development. By adulthood, axons can extend all the way down the spine, and when they are broken can cause serious injury. Better understanding what drives their early growth might one day help encourage regrowth in spinal cord injury patients.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Sebastian Dupraz and colleagues
• Axonal Growth and Regeneration Group, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Venusberg-Campus, Bonn, Germany
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Current Biology, October 2019