title: The development of rubrospinal, cerebellorubral, and corticorubral connections in the North American opossum. Evidence for asynchronism.
abstract: We have employed axonal transport and degeneration techniques to study the development of major rubral connections in the North American opossum. Opposums were chosen for study because they are born 12 d after conception and have a protracted postnatal development. Our results suggest that: The red nucleus innervates the spinal cord early in development, well before the somatic motor-sensory cortex (Cabana and Martin, 1984); the red nucleus projects to the spinal cord before it receives substantial projections from the cerebellum or cerebral cortex; and projections from the cerebellum reach the red nucleus significantly earlier than those from the cerebral cortex.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development*; D006735:Horseradish Peroxidase; D009410:Nerve Degeneration; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development; D009893:Opossums / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development*; D012012:Red Nucleus / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development*; D018998:Wheat Germ Agglutinin-Horseradish Peroxidase Conjugate; D014909:Wheat Germ Agglutinins
chemical_list: D018998:Wheat Germ Agglutinin-Horseradish Peroxidase Conjugate; D014909:Wheat Germ Agglutinins; D006735:Horseradish Peroxidase