This is the first competing renewal application for a program project to support and expand interactions that focus on the signaling mechanisms that control the directed outgrowth of neuronal processes and the directed movement of neuronal cells. Together these two properties are essential to the neuronal function, since the presice location of neurons and proper interconnection of their xons and dendrites inderpins all neuronal signaling and plasticity. Abnormal patterns of neuronal migration have been implicated in human neurological disorders associated with mental retardation, epilepsy, and dyslexia, while congenital disorders of mental retardation are increasingly recognized as having major disorders of axonal and dendritic connections. Project 1, headed by Christopher Walsh, focuses on the analysis of genes implicated in neuronal migration and process outgrowth based on human genetic studies.
