Abstract
To encode the positions of sensory stimuli, sensory circuits form topographic maps in the central nervous system through specific point-to-point connections between pre- and postsynaptic neurons. In vertebrate visual systems, the establishment of topographic maps involves the formation of a coarse topography followed by that of fine-scale topography that distinguishes the axon terminals of neighboring neurons. It is known that intrinsic differences in the form of broad gradients of guidance molecules instruct coarse topography while neuronal activity is required for fine-scale topography. On the other hand, studies in the Drosophila visual system have shown that intrinsic differences in cell adhesion among the axon terminals of neighboring neurons instruct the fine-scale topography. Recent studies on activity-dependent topography in the Drosophila somatosensory system have revealed a role of neuronal activity in creating molecular differences among sensory neurons for establishing fine-scale topography, implicating a conserved principle. Here we review the findings in both Drosophila and vertebrates and propose an integrated model for fine-scale topography.
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Abbreviations
- C4da neurons:
-
Class IV dendritic arborization neurons
- RGC:
-
Retinal ganglion cell
- VNC:
-
Ventral nerve cord
- Fmi:
-
Flamingo
- Ncad:
-
N-cadherin
- β2KO:
-
Mouse knockout of β2 subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor
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Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Thomas Clandinin, Gabriella Sterne, Ann Marie Macara, and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. Research in the Ye lab is supported by Grants from NIH (R01MH091186), Protein Folding Disease Initiative of the University of Michigan, and the Pew Scholars Program in the Biological Sciences to B.Y.
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Kaneko, T., Ye, B. Fine-scale topography in sensory systems: insights from Drosophila and vertebrates. J Comp Physiol A 201, 911–920 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-015-1022-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-015-1022-7