The role of Ryk/AF6/Eph complexes in neuronal pathfinding/fasciculation

Funding Activity

Website
http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/145770

Funding Status
Closed

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Funded Activity Summary

During embryonic development nerve cells in the central nervous system have to find the right connections to make with other nerve cells. The process by which nerve cells find the right partners to make connections with is called neuronal pathfinding. Once some nerve cells have made the right connections, other nerve cells attach to these cells and form bundles of nerve fibres. This process is called fasciculation or bundling. This whole process is vital to the normal development and function of the central nervous system and the brain. Without the right connections between nerves, information could not be received, processed or sent to organs in the body. We are now starting to discover some of the molecules which control the process of nerve cell pathfinding during development. It has been known for some time that proteins called Eph receptors play an important role in neuronal pathfinding and development of the head region in mice. We have now discovered that two other proteins called Ryk and AF-6 are able to bind to Eph receptors. We have very recently created mice which lack the Ryk protein and these mice have defects in their head deveopment strikingly similarto the head defects seen in mice that lack Eph receptors. We now wish to see whether Ryk mice have defects in neuronal pathfinding and fasciculation as do mice lacking Eph receptors. We also think that Ryk, Af-6 and Eph receptors form a protein complex which can modify cell function. We now wish to explore how this protein complex can do this.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2001

End Date: 01-01-2003

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $422,036.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Medical parasitology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

axon pathfinding | congenital disorders | craniofacial defects | embryonic development | membrane signaling | neuron pathfinding/fasciculation | protein-protein interaction | receptor tyrosine kinases

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