Wiring the Brain by Clustered Protocadherin Neural Codes

• 来源期刊: 神经科学通报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（1）
• 所属期刊栏目: Reviews
• 页码范围: 117-131
• 页数: 15页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

There are more than a thousand trillion specific synaptic connections in the human brain and over a million new specific connections are formed every second during the early years of life.The assembly of these staggeringly complex neuronal circuits requires specific cell-surface molecular tags to endow each neuron with a unique identity code to discriminate self from non-self.The clustered protocadherin(Pcdh)genes,which encode a tremendous diversity of cell-surface assemblies,are candidates for neuronal identity tags.We describe the adaptive evolution,genomic structure,and regulation of expression of the clustered Pcdhs.We specifically focus on the emerging 3-D architectural and biophysical mechanisms that gener-ate an enormous number of diverse cell-surface Pcdhs as neural codes in the brain.