# Dendritic Patterning by Interacting Extrinsic Cues

> **NIH NIH R01** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2022 · $28,841

## Abstract

Project Summary
The targeting of axons and dendrites is essential for proper wiring of the nervous system and the expression of
behavior. To understand how the nervous system is wired during development we focus on cell-cell
interactions that underlie specificity in wiring the somatosensory system. Somatosensation is important for
sensing touch and noxious stimuli, and for driving distinct and appropriate behavioral responses. We focus on
the influence of local axon-axon interactions in circuit organization, function, and behavior. The somatosensory
system of Drosophila is an excellent model to probe the cellular and molecular basis for neural circuit wiring
and function. Here we focus on the developmental mechanisms that ensure robust axon segregation to
different parts of the nervous system and how these patterns ensure appropriate neural circuit functioning.
Many of the developmental processes under study, including axon-axon adhesion, repulsion, refinement, axon
target selection, and the control of these processes by molecular cues and neural activity, are central to
nervous system development in other species. We find that the positioning of somatosensory axons is highly
ordered in the Drosophila central nervous system. This precise ordering appears to ensure that different
qualities of sensory information are passed to correct downstream circuits and lead to appropriate behavioral
responses. We propose that developing axons that are responsible for sensing different modalities engage in
interactions that ensure separation of connections and distinct behaviors in response to sensory stimulation.
By contrast we propose that axons of the same modality may engage in positive attractive interactions that
ensure cohesion during wiring. We aim to test the developmental mechanisms that enforce the normally robust
and distinct relationships between sensory input and motor output. We propose that at least part of the
mechanism lies in a hierarchy of developmental axon-axon interactions between different sensory modalities
and that understanding how this orderly wiring emerges will provide insights into the mechanisms by which
nervous systems are patterned more generally, and how patterning might be disrupted in developmental
disorders of the nervous system.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10691956
- **Project number:** 3R01NS061908-15S1
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Wesley B Grueber
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $28,841
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2008-04-01 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10691956

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10691956, Dendritic Patterning by Interacting Extrinsic Cues (3R01NS061908-15S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10691956. Licensed CC0.

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