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The Hedgehog, TGF-β/BMP and Wnt Families of Morphogens in Axon Guidance

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Axon Growth and Guidance

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 621))

Abstract

During embryonic development, morphogens act as graded positional cues to dictate cell fate specification and tissue patterning. Recent findings indicate that morphogen gradients also serve to guide axonal pathfinding during development of the nervous system. These findings challenge our previous notions about morphogens and axon guidance molecules and suggest that these proteins, rather than having sharply divergent functions, act more globally to provide graded positional information that can be interpreted by responding cells either to specify cell fate or to direct axonal pathfinding. This chapter presents the roles identified for members of three prominent morphogen families—the Hedgehog, Wnt and TGF-β/BMP families—in axon guidance, and discusses potential implications for the molecular mechanisms underlying their guidance functions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Biology of Neural Development, Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal (IRCM), 110 Pine Ave West, Montreal, Quebec, H2W 1R7, Canada

    Frédéric Charron

Authors
  1. Frédéric Charron
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  2. Marc Tessier-Lavigne
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Neurobiologie du Developpement et de la Regeneration (LNDR), Centre de Neurochimie de CNRS, Strasbourg, France

    Dominique Bagnard Ph.D.

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Charron, F., Tessier-Lavigne, M. (2007). The Hedgehog, TGF-β/BMP and Wnt Families of Morphogens in Axon Guidance. In: Bagnard, D. (eds) Axon Growth and Guidance. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 621. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-76715-4_9

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