Institut de Biologie de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR8197, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U1024, 75005 Paris, France.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Feb 2;107(5):2066-71. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0910213107. Epub 2010 Jan 19.
The wiring of the nervous system arises from extensive directional migration of neuronal cell bodies and growth of processes that, somehow, end up forming functional circuits. Thus far, this feat of biological engineering appears to rely on sequences of pathfinding decisions upon local cues, each with little relationship to the anatomical and physiological outcome. Here, we uncover a straightforward cellular mechanism for circuit building whereby a neuronal type directs the development of its future partners. We show that visceral afferents of the head (that innervate taste buds) provide a scaffold for the establishment of visceral efferents (that innervate salivatory glands and blood vessels). In embryological terms, sensory neurons derived from an epibranchial placode--that we show to develop largely independently from the neural crest--guide the directional outgrowth of hindbrain visceral motoneurons and control the formation of neural crest-derived parasympathetic ganglia.
神经系统的布线源于神经元细胞体的广泛定向迁移和过程的生长，这些过程最终形成了功能性回路。到目前为止，这种生物工程壮举似乎依赖于局部线索的趋同决策序列，每个线索与解剖和生理结果的关系都不大。在这里，我们发现了一种用于构建回路的简单细胞机制，其中一种神经元类型指导其未来伙伴的发育。我们表明，头部的内脏传入神经（支配味蕾）为内脏传出神经（支配唾液腺和血管）的建立提供了支架。从胚胎学的角度来看，我们发现来自脑颅神经嵴的后脑内脏运动神经元的定向生长和来自脑颅神经嵴的副交感神经节的形成受到来自脑颅神经嵴的感觉神经元的引导，而这些感觉神经元主要来自脑颅神经嵴。
