Commentary Cell Science Reviews Vol 5 No 2 ISSN 1742-8130

Potential shifts mediate cues for growth cone turning direction:
hyperpolarization for repulsion and depolarization for attraction

The involvement of ligand-receptor systems in mediating the responsivity of growth cones to repulsive and attractive cues was elucidated in 1990s. Since that dawn of realization, researchers have focused their efforts on establishing how such signals are transduced into growth cone behavior. Nishiyama et al. recently showed that guidance signals transduce membrane potential shifts into direct growth cone turning in Xenopus spinal neurons (Nishiyama et al., 2008). Their ground-breaking work has demonstrated that repellent guidance molecules evoke ‘focal’ hyperpolarizations, while attractants induce highly localized depolarizations.

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