Selective neural cell adhesion molecule signaling by Src family tyrosine kinases and tyrosine phosphatases.

Nerve growth cone guidance is a highly complex feat, involving coordination of cell adhesion molecules, trophic factor gradients, and extracellular matrix proteins. While navigating through the developing nervous system, the growth cone must integrate diverse environmental signals into a singular response. The repertoire of growth cone responses to these extracellular cues includes axonal growth, fasciculation, and synaptic stabilization, which are achieved through dynamic changes in the cytoskeleton and modulation of gene expression. It has become evident that interactions between cell adhesion molecules can activate intracellular signaling pathways in neurons. Such signaling pathways are just beginning to be defined for the axonal growth promoting molecules L1 and NCAM which are members of the immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily. Recent findings have revealed that L1 and NCAM induce neurite outgrowth by activating intracellular signaling pathways in the growth cone mediated by two different members of the src family of nonreceptor protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs), pp60(c-src) and p59(fyn5,6). Growth cones display diverse morphologies and variable motility on these different cell adhesion molecules, which are likely to be generated by src kinases. In this review we will address novel features of nonreceptor PTKs of the src family which dictate their distinctive molecular interactions with cell adhesion molecules and signaling components.