Experimental Investigation and Modeling of Growth Cone Adaptation in the Development of Topographic Projections (Experimentelle Untersuchung und Modellierung der Wachstumskegel-Adaption bei der Entwicklung topographischer Karten)

In the visual system, retinal ganglion cell growth cones (GCs) map topographically onto the optic tectum in the midbrain. Gradients of EphAs and ephrin-As along both, the retinal temporonasal and the tectal anteroposterior axes provide the chemoaffinity cues guiding retinal GCs to their topographically appropriate tectal destinations. Topographic precision is thought to rely on a faithful read-out of guidance cue concentrations, in this work, however, I show that GCs can adapt towards both cues.