title: Skin-derived cues control arborization of sensory dendrites in Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: Sensory dendrites depend on cues from their environment to pattern their growth and direct them toward their correct target tissues. Yet, little is known about dendrite-substrate interactions during dendrite morphogenesis. Here, we describe MNR-1/menorin, which is part of the conserved Fam151 family of proteins and is expressed in the skin to control the elaboration of "menorah"-like dendrites of mechanosensory neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans. We provide biochemical and genetic evidence that MNR-1 acts as a contact-dependent or short-range cue in concert with the neural cell adhesion molecule SAX-7/L1CAM in the skin and through the neuronal leucine-rich repeat transmembrane receptor DMA-1 on sensory dendrites. Our data describe an unknown pathway that provides spatial information from the skin substrate to pattern sensory dendrite development nonautonomously.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY 10461, USA.
authors.forename: Yehuda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Salzberg
authors.forename: Carlos A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Díaz-Balzac
authors.forename: Nelson J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Ramirez-Suarez
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Attreed
authors.forename: Eillen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tecle
authors.forename: Muriel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Desbois
authors.forename: Zaven
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kaprielian
authors.forename: Hannes E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Bülow
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000378:metabolism*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003712:Dendrites / Q000378:metabolism*; D055785:Gene Knockdown Techniques; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; C585068:MNR-1 protein, C elegans; D008565:Membrane Proteins