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The Journal of Neuroscience, 0000, 20:RC88:1-4

RAPID COMMUNICATION
Laminar Specificity of Local Circuits in Barrel Cortex of Ephrin-A5 Knockout Mice

N. Harumi Yabuta, Amy K. Butler, and Edward M. Callaway

Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California 92037

Cortical circuits are characterized by layer-specific axonal arbors. Molecular laminar cues are believed to direct the development of this specificity. We have tested the hypothesis that ephrin-A5 is responsible for preventing layer 2/3 pyramidal cell axons from branching within layer 4 (Castellani et al., 1998) by assessing the laminar specificity of axonal arbors in ephrin-A5 knockout mice. We find that in barrel cortex of knockout mice, layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons form axonal arbors specifically in layers 2/3 and 5, avoiding layer 4. This pattern of arborization is indistinguishable from that of wild-type littermates. Furthermore, we find that in wild-type mice, laminar patterns of ephrin-A5 expression differ between cortical areas despite the similarity of layer-specific local cortical circuits across areas. Most notably, ephrin-A5 is not expressed preferentially in layer 4 of wild-type mouse barrel cortex. We conclude that ephrin-A5 is not responsible for preventing the development of layer 2/3 pyramidal cell axonal arbors in layer 4 of mouse barrel cortex. These observations also suggest that if ephrin-A5 plays a role in the emergence of layer-specific circuits, that role must differ between cortical areas.

Key words: ephrin; eph receptor; local circuits; mouse; barrel cortex; somatosensory cortex

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Copyright © 0000 Society for Neuroscience  0270-6474/00/$05.00/0

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				D. L. Barbour and E. M. Callaway Excitatory Local Connections of Superficial Neurons in Rat Auditory Cortex J. Neurosci., October 29, 2008; 28(44): 11174 - 11185. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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