Department of Biological Chemistry, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, 90095, USA.
Cell. 2010 Oct 29;143(3):343-53. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2010.10.009.
The chemoaffinity hypothesis for neural circuit assembly posits that axons and their targets bear matching molecular labels that endow neurons with unique identities and specify synapses between appropriate partners. Here, we focus on two intriguing candidates for fulfilling this role, Drosophila Dscams and vertebrate clustered protocadherins (Pcdhs). In each, a complex genomic locus encodes large numbers of neuronal transmembrane proteins with homophilic binding specificity, individual members of which are expressed combinatorially. Although these properties suggest that Dscams and Pcdhs could act as specificity molecules, they may do so in ways that challenge traditional views of how neural circuits assemble.
神经回路装配的化学亲和假说认为，轴突及其靶标带有匹配的分子标签，赋予神经元独特的身份，并指定合适的伙伴之间的突触。在这里，我们专注于两个有趣的候选者，果蝇 Dscams 和脊椎动物聚类原钙黏蛋白 (Pcdhs)。在这两种情况下，一个复杂的基因组位点编码大量具有同亲结合特异性的神经元跨膜蛋白，其成员以组合的方式表达。尽管这些特性表明 Dscams 和 Pcdhs 可以作为特异性分子发挥作用，但它们的作用方式可能挑战了神经回路装配的传统观点。
