DCC's function takes shape in the nervous system.

Deleted in colorectal cancer (DCC), a candidate tumor-suppressor gene, has recently been found to encode a netrin receptor required for axon guidance in vitro. Mutations in Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila genes encoding DCC-related proteins affect axon guidance, and these phenotypes resemble those of mutations in netrin genes. Netrins and their DCC-related receptors thus play an evolutionarily conserved role in midline guidance, and DCC may be required more generally for cellular morphogenesis.