The receptor tyrosine kinase MuSK is required for neuromuscular junction formation in vivo.

Formation of neuromuscular synapses requires a series of inductive interactions between growing motor axons and differentiating muscle cells, culminating in the precise juxtaposition of a highly specialized nerve terminal with a complex molecular structure on the postsynaptic muscle surface. The receptors and signaling pathways mediating these inductive interactions are not known. We have generated mice with a targeted disruption of the gene encoding MuSK, a receptor tyrosine kinase selectively localized to the postsynaptic muscle surface. Neuromuscular synapses do not form in these mice, suggesting a failure in the induction of synapse formation. Together with the results of an accompanying manuscript, our findings indicate that MuSK responds to a critical nerve-derived signal (agrin), and in turn activates signaling cascades responsible for all aspects of synapse formation, including organization of the postsynaptic membrane, synapse-specific transcription, and presynaptic differentiation.

• Publication year

  1996

• Venue

  Cell

• Publication date

  1996-05-17

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/S0092-8674(00)81251-9PMID 8653786
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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  1989influential reference
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