TY - JOUR T1 - Segregated neural explants exhibit co-oriented, asymmetric, neurite outgrowth JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/613703 SP - 613703 AU - David B. Pettigrew AU - Curtis B. Dobson AU - Lori G. Isaacson AU - Eric Leuthardt AU - Heather Lilley AU - Georgette Suidan AU - Keith A. Crutcher Y1 - 2019/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/04/18/613703.abstract N2 - Explants of embryonic chick sympathetic and sensory ganglia were found to exhibit asymmetric radial outgrowth of neurites under standard culture conditions with or without exogenous Nerve Growth Factor [NGF]. Opposing sides of an explant exhibited: a] differences in neurite length and, b] differences in terminal morphology. Strikingly, this asymmetry exhibited co-orientation among segregated, neighboring explants. The underlying mechanism[s] of the asymmetry and its co-orientation have not been discovered but appears to depend on cell clustering because dissociated sympathetic neurons do not exhibit co-orientation whereas re-aggregated clusters of cells do. This emergent behavior may be similar to the community effect described in other cell types. If a similar phenomenon exists in the embryo, or in maturity, it may contribute to the establishment of proper orientation of neurite outgrowth during development and/or injury-induced neuronal plasticity. ER -