The regressive events associated with trophic deprivation are critical for sculpting a functional nervous system. After nerve growth factor withdrawal, sympathetic axons maintain their structural integrity for roughly 18 hours (latent phase) followed by a rapid and near unison disassembly of axons over the next 3 hours (catastrophic phase). Here we examine the molecular basis by which axons transition from latent to catastrophic phases of degeneration following trophic withdrawal. Prior to catastrophic degeneration, we observed an increase in intra-axonal calcium. This calcium flux is accompanied by p75 neurotrophic factor receptor (NTR)-Rho-actin dependent expansion of calcium rich axonal spheroids that eventually rupture, releasing their contents to the extracellular space. Conditioned media derived from degenerating axons is capable of hastening transition into the catastrophic phase of degeneration. We also found that death receptor 6 (DR6) but not p75NTR is required for transition into the catastrophic phase in response to conditioned media but not for the intra-axonal calcium flux, spheroid formation, or rupture that occurs toward the end of latency. Our results support the existence of an inter-axonal degenerative signal that promotes catastrophic degeneration among trophically deprived axons.Similar intra-axonal calcium waves have been observed prior to catastrophic fragmentation in injured zebrafish peripheral sensory axons (Vargas et al., 2015). Moreover, it was recently shown that axoplasmic calcium increases before the emergence of gross morphological changes in NGF deprived DRG cultures (Johnstone et al., 2019) suggesting that intra-axonal calcium signaling could play a role in all phases of degeneration.We sought to identify the signaling events that occur during the transition between latent and catastrophic phases of degeneration induced by trophic withdrawal. To this end, we asked the following questions: 1. What is the role of calcium in the latent and catastrophic phase in response to NGF deprivation? It may be that flux in intra-axonal calcium acts as a trigger for trophically deprived axons to exit the latent phase and enter the catastrophic phase. 2. What are the signaling events that regulate the commitment to irreversible fragmentation? The engagement of calcium is well established in the execution phase of injury induced axon degeneration (Conforti et al., 2014), however whether other signaling pathways act permissively to allow calcium dependent irreversible fragmentation in response to trophic withdrawal remains an open question. 3. What are the relative contributions of receptors p75NTR and DR6 to latent and catastrophic phases of degeneration? Because loss of p75NTR and DR6 showed different kinetics of axon degeneration after NGF deprivation (Gamage et al., 2017), we hypothesize that these death receptors may be required for different phases of degeneration.Similar to injury paradigms, we demonstrate that after trophic deprivation, intra-axonal calcium increases prior to catastrophic ...