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[摘要]：A major challenge in biology is to unravel how the billions of neurons of the nervous system make appropriate functional connections. This is known to be a multistep developmental process that includes guiding, targeting and refinement of axons. In this issue of The EMBO Journal, Garcia-Frigola and Herrera show compelling evidence that, within the visual system, the same transcription factor ( Zic2) that governs axon guidance at the midline has an independent role for the subsequent axonal refinement at targets in the brain. This latter property is controlled by the direct regulation of the neurotransmitter serotonin uptake modulator, SERT. This supports the commonly held notion that neural activity sculpts the crude circuit map initially laid down by molecular guidance. Overall, this study reveals new mechanistic insights into how transcriptional instructions mediate a neuron's unique response to its external environment, shaping the development of highly ordered neural circuits. |
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