Neural maintenance roles for the matrix receptor dystroglycan and the nuclear anchorage complex in Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: Recent studies in Caenorhabditis elegans have revealed specific neural maintenance mechanisms that protect soma and neurites against mispositioning due to displacement stresses, such as muscle contraction. We report that C. elegans dystroglycan (DG) DGN-1 functions to maintain the position of lumbar neurons during late embryonic and larval development. In the absence of DGN-1 the cell bodies of multiple lumbar neuron classes are frequently displaced anterior of their normal positions. Early but not later embryonic panneural expression of DGN-1 rescues positional maintenance, suggesting that dystroglycan is required for establishment of a critical maintenance pathway that persists throughout later developmental stages. Lumbar neural maintenance requires only a membrane-tethered N-terminal d

SUBMITTER: Johnson RP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3316649 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature