Landmarks and Labels That Help Developing Neurons Find Their Way

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Abstract
During embryonic development, neurons find other neurons or muscle cells in a remarkably precise way, often traveling long distances along stereotyped routes that involve a series of cell-specific choices. Growth occurs at the elongating tip of the axon by the ameboid growth cone and its many long, slender filopodia. Recent evidence in the grasshopper embryo suggests that growth cones are guided by selective adhesion of their filopodia to particular cell surfaces. Adhesive gradients along the early ectodermal epithelium and adhesive discontinuities on the surfaces of neuronal landmark cells, labeled axonal pathways and muscle pioneers, appear to be among the guidance cues used by growth cones during grasshopper embryogenesis.