Field: Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular NeuroscienceType: No effect foundArea: axon guidance signallingTarget: EphrinA5 binding to RET receptor tyrosine kinaseStage: preclinical
Hypothesis
EphrinA5 would bind the RET receptor directly, as earlier cell-based assays suggested, which would explain reverse signalling that guides motor axons.
What failed
Zebrafish ephrinA5b bound mouse EphA4 with high affinity, but in vitro it showed no interaction with zebrafish RET.
Broken assumption
EphrinA5 and RET bind each other directly.
Why
The authors suggest that other molecules may be needed for ephrinA5 to signal through RET, which cell-based assays would contain and a purified system would not.
From the published paper: Liu et al. PLoS ONE, 2018. ↗CC BY