Proper formation of whisker barrelettes requires periphery-derived Smad4-dependent TGF-beta signaling.

ABSTRACT: Mammalian somatosensory topographic maps contain specialized neuronal structures that precisely recapitulate the spatial pattern of peripheral sensory organs. In the mouse, whiskers are orderly mapped onto several brainstem nuclei as a set of modular structures termed barrelettes. Using a dual-color iontophoretic labeling strategy, we found that the precise topography of barrelettes is not a result of ordered positions of sensory neurons within the ganglion. We next explored another possibility that formation of the whisker map is influenced by periphery-derived mechanisms. During the period of peripheral sensory innervation, several TGF-β ligands are exclusively expressed in whisker follicles in a dynamic spatiotemporal pattern. Disrupting TGF-β signaling, specifically in sensory neurons

SUBMITTER: da Silva S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3044401 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature