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Published January 2007 | public
Journal Article

Neuropilin 2/Semaphorin 3F Signaling is Essential for Cranial Neural Crest Migration and Trigeminal Ganglion Condensation

Abstract

In the head of vertebrate embryos, neural crest cells migrate from the neural tube into the presumptive facial region and condense to form cranial ganglia and skeletal elements in the branchial arches. We show that newly formed neural folds and migrating neural crest cells express the neuropilin 2 (npn2) receptor in a manner that is highly conserved in amniotes. The repulsive npn2 ligand semaphorin (sema) 3F is expressed in a complementary pattern in the mouse. Furthermore, mice carrying null mutations for either npn2 or sema3F have abnormal cranial neural crest migration. Most notably, "bridges" of migrating cells are observed crossing between neural crest streams entering branchial arches 1 and 2. In addition, trigeminal ganglia fail to form correctly in the mutants and are improperly condensed and loosely organized. These data show that npn2/sema3F signaling is required for proper cranial neural crest development in the head.

Additional Information

© 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Received 25 April 2006; revised 12 July 2006; accepted 17 July 2006. Article first published online: 22 Dec 2006. USPHS. Grant Numbers: DE15309, NS051051. We are extremely grateful to David Ginty and Chenghua Gu for providing the npn2 and sema3F in situ probes, the npn2 knockout mice and sema3F mutant embryos, as well as helpful comments throughout the course of this work. Special thanks to Joaquin Gutierrez for exceptional animal care and to members of the Bronner-Fraser laboratory for helpful discussions.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 17, 2023