Fuerst Peter G, Burgess Robert W
The Jackson Laboratory, 600 Main Street, Bar Harbor, ME 04069, USA.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2009 Aug;19(4):389-94. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2009.07.013. Epub 2009 Aug 5.
The formation of neural circuits requires molecular mechanisms to confer cell identity, to establish appropriate dendritic arbors, and to space cell bodies within the groups of homotypic neurons. Recent work in a variety of organisms has implicated cell adhesion molecules in these processes. The DSCAMs in particular have functions including cell identity and self-avoidance through repulsion in Drosophila, differential adhesion and synaptic pairing in chick retina, and the masking of adhesion within specific cell types in the mouse retina. These differences in molecular function between different organisms, and potentially different cell types within a single tissue, emphasize how seemingly subtle distinctions may be important for deciphering this molecular adhesion code.
神经回路的形成需要分子机制来赋予细胞身份、建立合适的树突分支，并在同型神经元群体中分隔细胞体。最近在多种生物体中的研究表明细胞黏附分子参与了这些过程。特别是唐氏综合征细胞黏附分子（DSCAM）具有多种功能，包括在果蝇中通过排斥实现细胞身份识别和自我回避、在鸡视网膜中实现差异黏附和突触配对，以及在小鼠视网膜中掩盖特定细胞类型内的黏附作用。不同生物体之间以及单个组织内潜在的不同细胞类型之间分子功能的这些差异，强调了看似细微的区别对于解读这种分子黏附密码可能是多么重要。
