The Problem of Specificity in Growth and Development

Weiß, Paul

doi:10.1016/b978-1-4832-2919-5.50016-7

Cited by 105 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Thus, the CNS provides an appropriate environment within which specific connections can be made. Several mechanisms have been hypothesized to account for specificity of fiber growth as well as connectivity, such as neuronal activity (Archer et al, 1982;Dubin et al, 1986;Shatz and Stryker, 1988;Sretavan et al, 1988), cell surface molecules (Weiss, 1947;Edelman, 1984a,b), growth or chemotactic factors (Ramon y Cajal, 19 10, 1959;Levi-Montalcini, 1964), electrical fields (Jaffe and Nuccitelli, 1977;Robinson, 1985;Faber and Korn, 1989), and adjacent fibers (Lynch et al, 1972(Lynch et al, , 1976Rutishauser et al, 1978), among others. Through these postulated mechanisms, the brain regulates the development of correctly functioning circuits, which are essential for normal brain organization and function.…”

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confidence: 99%

Target and neurotransmitter specificity of fetal central nervous system transplants: importance for functional reinnervation

et al. 1994

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The ability of grafted fetal ventral mesencephalic dopaminergic (DAergic) neuroblasts to reinnervate the unilaterally DA denervated rat striatum and improve motoric asymmetry has been well documented in several laboratories. The importance of host target specificity, and catecholamine (CA) neurotransmitter species, in the ability of grafts to ameliorate rotational responses to apomorphine and to affect electrophysiological characteristics of striatal neurons has not been systematically studied. We unilaterally lesioned Sprague-Dawley rats with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) and verified the lesions using apomorphine (0.05 mg/kg, s.c.)-induced rotational behavior. Some of the animals subsequently received, intrastriatally, either DA neuroblasts from ventral mesencephalon that normally innervate the striatum, or from arcuate nucleus that do not. Additionally, two other groups were included that received either a CAergic graft from the noradrenergic nucleus locus coeruleus or a graft of cerebral cortex, which normally projects to the striatum but does not contain CAergic neurons. Only the fetal ventral mesencephalic grafts were able to reduce apomorphine- induced rotations and normalize striatal cell firing rates; striatal cell firing rates with ventral mesencephalic grafts were 1.43 Hz +/- 0.22, with arcuate nucleus grafts were 6.03 +/- 0.73, with locus coeruleus grafts were 4.71 +/- 0.74, and with cerebral cortex grafts were 4.36 +/- 0.45. Moreover, only the ventral mesencephalic grafts produced a dense tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-immunoreactive nerve terminal network in the striatum; in contrast, the arcuate nucleus grafts did not reinnervate the striatum. In locus coeruleus grafted striata, few very long TH-positive axons were seen. We thus conclude that target specificity and neurotransmitter type are critically important in the ability of a graft to functionally reinnervate the 6- OHDA denervated striatum.

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Target and neurotransmitter specificity of fetal central nervous system transplants: importance for functional reinnervation

et al. 1994

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“…Early theories on the mechanism of intercellular adhesion (11,12) proposed that apposing cell surfaces contained complementary molecules which acted as a lock and key, or, more precisely, like an antigen-antibody reaction . As a result of studies on mouse teratoma (4) and chicken embryo neural retina cells (8), we have recently extended this idea (7), suggesting that the complementary molecules are enzymes and substrates on the apposing cell surfaces, specifically, the complex carbohydrates and glycosyltransferases .…”

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Evidence for Cell-Surface Glycosyltransferases

Roth

McGuire

Roseman

1971

The Journal of Cell Biology

335

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Intact chicken embryo neural retina cells have been shown to catalyze the transfer of galactose-14C from uridine diphosphate galactose (UDP-galactose) to endogenous acceptors of high molecular weight as well as to exogenous acceptors . Four lines of evidence indicate that the galactosyltransferases catalyzing these reactions are at least partly located on the outside surface of the plasma membrane : (a) there is no evidence for appreciable uptake of sugar-nucleotides by vertebrate cells nor did unlabeled galactose, galactose 1-phosphate, or UDP-glucose interfere with the radioactivity incorporated during the reaction ; (b) the cells remained essentially intact during the course of the reaction ; (c) there was insufficient galactosyltransferase activity in the cell supernatants to account for the incorporation of galactose-14 C into cell pellets ; and (d) the intact cells could transfer galactose to acceptors of 10 6 daltons, and the product of this reaction was in the extracellular fluid . Appropriate galactosyl acceptors interfered with the adhesive specificity of neural retina cells ; other compounds, which were not acceptors, had no effect . These results suggested that the transferase-acceptor complex may play a role in cellular recognition .Early theories on the mechanism of intercellular adhesion (11,12) proposed that apposing cell surfaces contained complementary molecules which acted as a lock and key, or, more precisely, like an antigen-antibody reaction . As a result of studies on mouse teratoma (4) and chicken embryo neural retina cells (8), we have recently extended this idea (7), suggesting that the complementary molecules are enzymes and substrates on the apposing cell surfaces, specifically, the complex carbohydrates and glycosyltransferases .The glycosyltransferases comprise several families of enzymes (6, 7), each of which catalyzes the following reaction :Sugar-nucleotide + oligosaccharide-acceptor sugar-oligosaccharide-acceptor + nucleotide Thus, chain elongation of the oligosaccharide units in the complex carbohydrates is effected by the addition of monosaccharide units through the action of different glycosyltransferases in a specific sequence . While all glycosyltransferases within one family, such as the sialyltransferases or the galactosyltransferases, utilize the same sugarnucleotide as the glycose donor (e .g ., cytidine monophosphate (CMP)'-sialic acid or uridine diphosphate (UDP)-galactose), each of the enzymes is specific for the acceptor molecule or its analogues . Thus, different galactosyltransferases are required to add galactose to the oligosaccharide 1 Abbreviations used in this paper : CMP, cytidine monophosphate ; TCA, trichloroacetic acid ; UDP, uridine diphosphate .5 3 6

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“…The role of the cell surface in the spatial organization of the cell was a vital aspect of what Weiss (1947) called ''molecular ecology.'' The spatial organization of the cell and its particulate constituents required ''a primordial system of spatially organized conditions to set the frame for the later differential settlement of different members of the dispersed molecular populations'' (Weiss, 1947, p. 253).…”

Section: Protozoology and Embryologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“Just” in time: Gene theory and the biology of the cell surface

Sapp

2009

Molecular Reproduction Devel

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SUMMARYErnest Everett Just's critique of gene theory, his emphasis on the importance of cell cytoplasm, especially of the cortex in development and heredity, is placed within the context of his times, when the views of embryologists, who emphasized heredity as process, and those of geneticists who held determinist conceptions of the gene, were irreconcilable. Just's emphasis on the cell cortex in heredity and morphogenesis was appreciated by few, but was vindicated by studies of cortical inheritance and the morphogenetic role of pre-existing cell structure in ciliated protists. His essential criticisms of mechanism remain potent today.Mol. Reprod. Dev. 76: 903-911, 2009. ß

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The Problem of Specificity in Growth and Development

Cited by 105 publications

References 26 publications

Target and neurotransmitter specificity of fetal central nervous system transplants: importance for functional reinnervation

Target and neurotransmitter specificity of fetal central nervous system transplants: importance for functional reinnervation

Evidence for Cell-Surface Glycosyltransferases

“Just” in time: Gene theory and the biology of the cell surface

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